[GEOFF]

I use separate flash drives plugged into a USB port to backup data on my wife's pc and my Notebook. When my data is backed up, I click the Safely remove hardward icon on the taskbar and then click Stop USB Mass Storage Device. When I get the message I can safely remove the device, then I do so.

But, lately I have noticed the sately remove hardware icon on my wife's taskbar when I am not doing a backup and there is no flash drive in the USB port. When I click it open, I can then click it to stop and I get the saftely remove hardware message and the icon disappears as before. But, when the system starts up the icon appears.

I looked at USB ports in Device Driver and it shows there as Mass storage Device and says it is working properly. I am a little reluctant to hit the disable button as I am not sure if that is the right thing to do and if that would permanently disable that usb port or just the device it thinks is in there.

I am not sure what has caused this, unless perhaps once I forgot to run the safely remove device before physically removing the storage device. I have backed up since this problem, and all works well including running the stop storage device, but the icon keeps reappearing on startup.

Anyway, this is obviously not a huge problem, but I would like to understand what is going on and sort it out as everything else is working so well on both systems and I can actually say they seem even smoother and faster this last month with SP1.

Any thoughts and should I just hit the disable button?

Both units run Vista SP1.
thanks,
G

[GEOFF]

Anybody have anything on this? I know it is not pressing, but.......
G

[fairnooks]

You may have noticed something that I or many others don't even pay attention to because now that I think about it I'm pretty sure I get the SRH icon on one or more of my computers with no MSD plugged in at the time.

I assumed it was because I had plugged MSDs in previous so it was just in the start up. You don't want to disable the USB MSD in the device manager or your system will stop recognizing any MSDs I think.

The fact that it seems to be behaving inconsistently or differently from one system to another, well, that's Windows eh? There is a record of every MSD that has been recognized by a system (that's why it only has to go through the discovery process once) that stays hidden when not in use so one of those could be mis-detected as in use I suppose. If you don't get any device to safely remove listed though I think its just another normal startup service that was switched to automatic instead of manual.

If you go back into the Safely remove hardware window and check the display device components and then if a component is revealed, is it recognizable as something that has been plugged in before or is it something else? That could be diagnostic as well.

[GEOFF]

Ok, thank you, your suggestion seems to help.

Checking Display Device Components revelaed that it actually is the HP all in one printer showing up under USB Mass storage device. Generic device was listed under the HP printer showing port F I think.

To double check that, I stopped it and I then pulled out the USB printer plug the safely remove icon disappeared on the taskbar. But, when I rebooted with the USB cord back in and then turned on the printer, the safely remove icon immediately appeared on the taskbar and when I opened the window it showed the same USB Mass storage device, then the HP printer and below that the Generic device in port F.

So, is it saying that it thinks the HP printer is a mass storage device? And if so, what to do...something or nothing?
G

[fairnooks]

If everything printer-related is working fine I would say do nothing and if something wasn't quite right about the printer I would still say do nothing, at least not as a first course of action. These days almost anything that plugs into USB has the potential to be or have a component with MSD protocol. The all in one printer could have a little memory buffer in it for either some forms of printing or scanning transfers that isn't a proper MSD per se but acts just like one.

That's just an edjucated guess though...

[GEOFF]

Ok, makes sense. Tomorrow I am doing a backup to a flash drive and I will make sure that when I safely remove the flash dirve that it is actually referring to that flash dirve.

I just saved some things recently in the HP scan memory. I will delete them and see if that makes a difference as I don't need that data.

Everything on that PC and my notebook is running so well on Vista SP1 that I too am reluctant to tamper with printer related items. So, I will watch and see and poke around, but nothing too serious and post what I come up with. Thank you thus far.
G

[katabby]

I've noticed it too, but I thought it was pointing towards my USB external hard drive, but I do have an all in one printer too.
It doesn't seem to be hurting anything sitting in the taskbar.

[GEOFF]

No, mine isn't hurting anything either. I was more curious why it was on our desktop and not on my notebook. Must be the all-in-one doing it, as my notebook does not have one, just a straight up Epson printer.

Anyway, tomorrow when I have time and do the flash drive backup, I will watch to see what it shows for USB MSD and if there are two icons,
g

[DaveA]

Some of these new toys have a memory card reader in them that you can print from the card. If so, then this just may be the card reader that you are seeing.

[katabby]

Geoff
Do you just keep your backups on a USB thumb drive? Or do you move them somewhere else?
Just curious. I got sick of burning DVD's so I bought an external hard drive.

[GEOFF]

Originally Posted by DaveA

Some of these new toys have a memory card reader in them that you can print from the card. If so, then this just may be the card reader that you are seeing.

Probably. If I boot up without the HP printer on then no safely remove icon. Once I turn on the printer, the icon pops up. When I backed up with the flash stick and then clicked open the safely remove window, both MSD items appeared, so I just stopped the flash drive from running.

So yes, it is reading something in the HP printer and katabby said his all in one does the same thing. No big deal I guess..........Either Windows wants it to work that way or it just works that way regardless................
G

[GEOFF]

Originally Posted by katabby

Geoff
Do you just keep your backups on a USB thumb drive? Or do you move them somewhere else?
Just curious. I got sick of burning DVD's so I bought an external hard drive.

I keep them on a thumb (flash) drive...fast, easy, quick and never a problem and huge space now on thumb drives. I backup up my data weekly and then put the thumb drives in my outbuilding away from my home office in case of fire.

I also quickly attach and email my important data files to a yahoo email account I keep for that purpose at the same time. Also fast and easy and gives me two backups and one that I can access with my notebook on the road.

And just for overkill, on the road I bring a separate thumb drive to back up important files as I go in case my notebook crashes or is stolen.......I know, overkill, but hey years and years ago my system crashed with no decent backup around and I learned my lesson.
G

[GEOFF]

I have marked this solved as my question about the MSD icon showing up on the taskbar has been answered in that that I know now why it is there and that it is caused by the HP all in one printer showing up in the usb port. Thanks to all.
G