safley remove hardware icon

right-click the notification area,(lower right hand where the icon appears) and selectProperties. Under the Notification area heading, click Customize. Find the Safely Remove Hardware icon and select Always hide in the Behavior column next to it (press OK and Apply to back out).

I have a Dell Deminsion 530 Desktop (new as of 1/30/08) running Windows Vista Home Premium w/3GB Memory & a 500 GB Hard Drive.  In early February I uploaded some photos via memory card to the computer; when finished I looked for the Safe to Remove Hardware icon on the desktop tray and it wasn't there (it had been there for previous uploads).  Dell's infamous tech support told me that Microsoft Article #927826 dated March 15, 2007 covers this problem.  Basically "Windows Vista determines that the embedded USB can be removed.  However, Windows Vista determines that the downstream storage device or devices that are connected to the embedded USB hub cannot be removed."

The only workaround to this problem is to shut down your computer before you remove the USB device. 

Hopefully a patch will soon be developed to somehow solve this problem and I can get the icon back.  Until then.....

SlushPuppy,

A card reader shouldn't actually display as a device in "safely remove hardware". It is not the card reader that you want to remove, rather it is the memory card itself. Open Computer, right click on the card reader and select "eject".

I had this same problem with a Insprion 531, Vista Business.  It was referencing my internal hard drive and DVD-RW as removable/external  It occured after I downloaded and installed updates from Windows updates.  Essentially, Microsoft was sending me driver updates that did not relate to my system.  For example, they sent me a quick resume technology for Intel processor drivers, but I have AMD processors.  This caused a malfunction, and created many problems, one of them being the "safely remove hardware" icon.  Initially, Dell Tech Support told me this was normal.  AFter enough complaining I was able to communicate with a knowledgable IT specialist at Dell who fixed the problem.  Here is the link to my intial post on this problem. 

http://http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_harddrive&message.id=141307#M141307ndows update. 

To solve the problem identify when you began experiencing this problem?  Correlate the time with any updates, or changes that were made.  For example, did you download or install any updates, files, etc. prior to this happening.  If so, you need to remove them.  Could you include that information in your next post.  I may be able to walk you through the process, and if I can't maybe someone else will be able to. 

Thanks.  I know I want to remove the memory card -- not the memory card reader.  My point was that the "Safe to Remove Hardware" icon was not on the Tast Bar tray where it should have been.  My only option at that point was to simply remove the memory card once the light stopped blinking.  Thankfully no damage was done.  The icon is no longer on my computer; it seems to be one of the many quirks of Vista.

"My point was that the "Safe to Remove Hardware" icon was not on the Tast Bar tray where it should have been"

And my point is that for a memory card, the Safely Remove Hardware icon is not supposed to be on the Task Bar.