Well, I'm sure there is a way, if you look hard enough,
hack the OS, etc...
But I'm not really sure it is such a good idea to try...

That is (at least on my system) where my USB storage devices are listed.

Since a storage device might be in the middle of reading or writing a file,
or the file system might not have flushed all data from the caches to disk,
a "rude" and unexpected disconnect of the device could easily cause data
loss or worse, data corruption...

When you ask the OS (by using this icon) to shut a device down, it performs
the necessary "clean-up" and shut down operations that would be very similar
in nature as when you give the "similar type" command to shut down your
entire computer. This icon just prepares the one device to shut down gracefully...

While getting rid of the icon may do no harm at all, the idea behind it and
how it is supposed to be used is very important in most cases...

(I don't think yours is working correctly, but that is a problem for another time,
and a difficult one at that...)

Hope this helps...                                     Rick Glazier


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sherry Dykes" <[log in to unmask]>

> I have a desktop computer and am running Windows XP.  One of the
> icons that shows up in my icon bar (down by the clock) is one
> that says "Safely Remove Hardware".  It decides when an item has
> been installed for too long and removes it - I seem to have no
> control.  One of the things that it frequently removes is the
> hard media reader (SanDisk) that I use for viewing and loading
> digital pictures.  There doesn't seem to be any way that I can
> remove the icon - if
> I click on it (either right or left), it simply wants to start
> the process of removing items.  Is there any way that I can
> (permanently) remove this feature?

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