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    Vista reads my DVD drive as a "removable" and has the "remove safely" icon on the taskbar.

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by xdrive, Feb 29, 2008.

  1. xdrive

    xdrive Notebook Guru

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    Does anyone have a fix for this? I've update all the drivers, and Windows tells me the DVD drive already has the latest drivers. It works fine other than for the fact that if I click to "remove safely" it disappears from the system altogether.

    Any ideas?
     
  2. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    Ummm ... Don't click on the remove safely icon?

    Seriously, what PC? Some notebook DVD drives are removable.
     
  3. xdrive

    xdrive Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for the quick reply.

    It's a ThinkPad R61. If this is removable, then is there a way I can make the "remove safely" icon not show up for that drive (and still show up for USB drives and the like)?
     
  4. sp00n

    sp00n Notebook Deity

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    That's normal for ThinkPad notebooks because their drives are removable.
     
  5. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    If you have more than one removable device installed, they will be listed separately in the list of devices eligible to be "Safely Removed" and each individual device may be removed without affecting the others.
     
  6. xdrive

    xdrive Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for your help, everyone. I didn't even know my own laptop had a removable optical disc drive, lol!
     
  7. Arki

    Arki Super Moderator

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    You can still hide that icon, but once you plug in any removable storage device like an external HDD or flash drive, you won't see the "remove hardware icon" in the system tray until you enable it again.

    To do this:

    Go into your Start Menu Properties in Control Panel. There will be an option to hide inactive icons in the notification area. Check that box and Customize it. You'll see a drop down menu to hide it.

    Those are the directions for XP, but I'm sure Vista is similar. Good luck!