When I plug in my external hd, there is no Unplug/Eject button appearing in the taskbar, even though I have selected that option.

This is an 80 GB Western Digital USB hd.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Use the Safely Remove Hardware Icon in the systray to safely disconnect each USB drives.

i_Xp/VistaUser

Perhaps I wasn't clear, the problem is there is no icon displayed in the taskbar for the ext. hd.

As and added note, I do get the icon displayed whenever I plug in a jump drive.

Thanks.

Look for the drive in Device Manger under Disk drives. Expand and right click the listing for the external drive. Choose properties> policies and then choose to optimize for quick removal.

Thanks for the reply.

The only option I see under Properties is 'Write cache enabled', no policies, etc.

Then there aren't two bullets to tick? One for optimize for quick removal and one for performance?

When I open the Properties for the drive, three tabs are displayed - General, Disk Properties and Driver. When I select Disk Properties, only the Write cache enable option is displayed with selection button.

Could this have anything to do with the vintage of the drive, it's not new - maybe 3-4 years old - and was just given to me recently. Didn't think about that earlier. Model WD800B15-RNN. Don't find a lot of info on it.

Also, how can I tell if my usb is 2.0 or not?

Thanks again.

How is the drive labeled in My Computer?

Has nothing to do with the age of the drive.

Look at the USB acontrollers in Device Manager. If the label uses the word Enhanced in the label then at least some of the USB ports are USB 2.0.

The label is WD USB 2 (I guess that's what the previous owner labeled it?) and the type is local disk.

I guess I don't have USB 2.0, no Enhanced showing in the Device Manager.

Thanks.

I was asking what the listing in Device manager called that drive.

External harddrives should be backward compatible so USB is not an absolute necessity. USB 1.1 runs @ 12Mbps, USB 2.0@ 480Mbps. Does the drive require an external AC current connection?

Device Manager lists the device as WD 800BB External USB Device. It does require an external power connection.

Thanks for the info on USB version. I'll need to add some 2.0 ports.

I forgot you are using Win2000. I was giving instructions for WinXP. I looked at a 2000 machine and don't see any method to force the icon. I did Google it and found some command prompt methods of safely removing the drive. I don't know why that is happening.

I got a Maxtor 250 GB USB drive, installed it and the unplug/eject icon appears as expected.

Still nothing when plugging in the WD USB drive, so it's just something strange about that drive.

Thanks for all the responses.