Hello all.
I recently bought an R40 IBM laptop. I am unable to copy information to or from CDs because 'Safely Remove Hardware' insists on preparing my CD/DVD drive for removal. Literally, it says 'it is now safe to remove [insert drive name here]."
SRH makes the CD/DVD icon disappear when i open up 'My Computer.' Because of this i cannot play music CDs, copy information to or from my data CDs or even get them out of the drive, until I restart the laptop.  I am running WinXP Home.

On the rare day I can see the CD drive in 'My Computer' I can't erase the CD-RW in the drive... the drive doesn't stay visible to the computer long enough, i have SRH to thank for that. I use XP's CD writing wizard and the option to erase the CD-RW is not visible. Nero doesn't help much because again, the computer does not seem to know that its CD drive is still attached.

I'm not trying to remove it so I don't know why SRH keeps showing up. It's an HL-DT-ST rw/dvd GCC-4240N drive in an IBM R40 ThinkPad laptop.

Should I be trying to remove or disable SRH from windows XP? Do I need an update?  Is it a problem with SRH or the drive? Even information on what might be causing the issue woudl greatly relieve some serious stress over here. Advice is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Spin

UPDATE: Problem Solved

CD-ROM was not seated properly in the R40. (It's hot swappable too, didn't know that) Just popped out the drive, pop it back in and do NOT click on Safely Remove Hardware even if the option is there. Just cancel it. Thanks daquiri.

(in reply to spin.sugah)

You should ALWAYS click to safely remove hardware on a Hotswappable drive.  Well, perhaps not really on a DVD/CD Writer with no disk in the tray, but on say a hard drive, it could be cache writing, this is the reasoning behind this.

(in reply to spin.sugah)

I'm a new member, so this is my first post.  I'm here because "Safely Remove Hardware" gets in my way, and I'm hoping for advice on how to get around it.  I frequently put memory cards in a Sandisk card reader, and when I want to change disks I use "Safely Remove Hardware" before removing one. However, more often than not, instead of clearance to remove the current card, I get an error message that the device is "being used by another program" or to "try again later." The message does not reveal what other program is using it, and when it appears it continues even after I've closed every program. This happens more often than releasing the device. My choices appear to be either to swap cards and get scolded by the XP OS, or log off and back on. 

Can anyone explain what's happening, whether the OS can be tweaked to reveal what it thinks is using the device, and/or a work-around short of re-logging in? I need to be able to pop those cards in and out without this frustration.

Thanks!

(in reply to spin.sugah)

I get this problem with my camera too.  It occurs when I use "thumbnail" or "slideshow" views in windows explorer.  What happens is that a "thumbs.db" file is created in the folder you've viewing.  Stupid Windows keeps the file open for an indeterminant amount of time regardless of the user's attempts to disconnect.

Solution: Never use thumbnail or slideshow views for folders on a device you may want to remove.

(in reply to dmead)

Sometimes a service might not be stopped and maybe this si way you get the message "being used by another program" or to "try again later". I have seen it on my system. I restart and then no problem.

(in reply to clivetowncdrinf)

Thanks for the replies, guys. 

As far as restarting, I'm on a large network, and restarting takes two or three minutes. It's the solution I've been using, and it's very disruptive. From my point of view, restarting the computer to swap a CompactFlash card makes about as much sense as disconnecting and reconnecting a TV cable to change channels. 

I've been playing with this since posting, though, and I now realize disconnecting the device - the card reader - is overkill.  All I want to do is remove and replace the card. To do that I NEED to keep the device connected; once disconnected, it doesn't re-connect by simply inserting another card.  I've found I can go to Explorer and EJECT the card (right-click); I get warnings, but if I continue, the system allows me to remove the card and put in a new one.  I'm still experimenting with this, so don't take it as gospel, but I think I'm onto something.

Unfortunately, as a photographer I work with image files 99 percent of the time, so I'd be lost without thumbnail or slide show views of the CF content.  But the info about the thumbs.db file being the culprit is very valuable.  Perhaps I can figure out how/where to find and delete it when I need the OS to release the device.  Even better will be if ejecting the card makes removing the device, and chasing down the thumb.db file to do so, unnecessary.

Let me know if you're interested and I'll keep you "posted." 

(in reply to Antonio)

Showing the "thumbs.db" file is easy.  Just go to the folder view options (under Tools->Folder Options->View in win2k at least) and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" and select "Show hidden files and folders".

If the thumbs.db is causing you grief, you can disable it altogether.  See http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/994/ for how to do this.  You still have thumbnail view, but with no cache it won't be any faster the second time you look at a folder.

PS: Yes, I am interested, please post what you find out.

(in reply to dmead)