SBS - No "Safely Remove Hardware" Icon?

An option for our managed services clients is to pop in to their location to rotate their encrypted ShadowProtect USB backup drives off-site on a set schedule.

Today on a client's SBS server, we could could not find the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon:

There was no reference to properly removing the USB hard drive anywhere on the system.

After a brief search, we came up with:

1. Right click on the desktop
2. New
3. Shortcut
4. Cut and paste the following into "Type the location of the item":
• RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll
5. Next
6. Name it: Safely Remove Hardware
7. Finish

Once done, we end up with:

Shortcut Icon (Vista)

To give the icon a little bit more visual relevance, we can change the icon's appearance:

1. Right Click on the icon
2. Left Click Properties
3. Click the Change Icon button
4. Copy and Paste the following:
• %windir%\system32\HotPlug.dll
5. Click OK once
6. Choose the icon desired
7. OK
8. OK

We end up with something like:

Shortcut Icon Modified (Vista)

Double click on the new icon and we get the ability to safely remove the USB hard drive:

Safely Remove Hardware

Click on the item we need to remove, click the Stop button, and voila ... we have the ability to swap out the USB hard drives.

Once the shortcut is created, it can be used on any Windows box. One can keep a copy of the shortcut on their Technician's Thumb Drive for future use.

Shortcut courtesy of: neil's world: Create a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

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