USB Flash Drive/Card Reader not in "Safely Remove Hardware" list

Recently, when I plugged in USB flash drive or card reader, the "Safely
Remove Hardware" list never show them anymore. It only shows the plugged
infra-red device.

Anyone who can help me to solve this problem? I would like these devices
showed on the list again or otherwise I don't know how to safely remove them.

Thank you very much for your kind help!

Does it show up in My Computer?

Yes, it shows on My Computer and it works properly. The only problem is I
cannot safely remove it. And it worked in the past.

Is it any way to control this by modifying the registry?

Drives do not show in 'Safely Remove Hardware' if they are set up for
write-through cacheing (optimised for fast removal). This should be the
default option for flash memory drives.

Write a short scrap file to your flash drive and then unplug it as soon as
the activity light goes out. If the file is on the drive then you have
write-through cacheing set up.

I have updated Write Caching and Safe Removal option to "Optimize for
performance" but the device still does not appear in the "Safely Remove
Hardware" list! So weird!

That's not true. All availlable information state that
the hplug.dll checks for some device capabilties but
not for any policies.

Correct, it is. And if your first statement would be true
then by default not a single USB drive would be shown in
'Safely remove hardware'.

Some more information:

When I remove the hardware and plug the USB drive again, it shows new
hardware found. At this moment, the device shows on the "Safely Remove
Hardware" list. However, once a drive letter is assigned to this device, it
is removed from the "Safely Remove Hardware" list again!

Is it possible that some viruses will cause this situation? If so, anyone
know what viruses? I am using Norton 360 and I don't think it can detect all
popular viruses.

If the device is detected as new each time then
probably writing some of the required registry
keys fails, so they are not found next time. One
of these keys might be the 'capabilities' value
which is the main criterion for a device beeing
shown in 'Safely remove hardware'.

Norton 360 is known for causing strange effects with
USB drives.

A quick check reveals that you are correct. However, if all the removable
drives are optimized for removal then the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon
should not show in the system tray.

A check on another machine shows a different behaviour.
Optimised for removal devies do not appear on the list provided by 'Safely
Remove Hardware', so my initial statement may have validity.

[rempuii7]

Chris The reason you can't remove it safely now is because the more the computer use it the harder it is difficult to remove as more and more application are using it,and when you try to remove from safely remove hardware it will not allow anymore.
As for Clayton question I have no other suggestion except clean installation of your OS

you have to set the "capabilities" attribute in registry to dword hexdecimal = 6, to unlist from the safe removal, set to = 10.

0. make sure u know what you are doing.

1. on XP, right click on My Computer - Properties - Hardware - Device Manager, navigate to USB controler, and open properties for usb mass storage device. go to details tab, and note the device instance value ie. USB\VID_414&PID\22AF000000

2. run registry.exe navigate to that key local machine\system\controlset001\enum\usb\VID_414&PID\22AF000000 edit permission, set everyone to write, then click on "capabilities" and set to "6" OR "10", which one you prefer.

3. click on safe to remove icon, or if the icon is missing, run this "c:\windows\system32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll"

4. to remove other items in the safe removal list, just find the device instance ID, ie. cd rom, network card etc, and set value to "10", to add set value to "6"\