Windows 7 - removable storage

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

Windows 7 has failed to recognise that the portable hard drive which I have plugged in (USB) is 'removable storage' and does not give the option to eject. Looks like I need to shut down to ensure that I eject safely.. .. does anyone know how to solve this?
Cheers
T

John_Gray

Is this a consistent problem? Have you tried using a different USB socket?

-TangleFoot-

Quite a few hypotheses here...

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

it's only been happening for a week or two - I may well try a different socket Thanks

John_Gray wrote: »

Is this a consistent problem? Have you tried using a different USB socket?

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

Looks like a whole book load Thanks - something for me to trawl through

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

Quite a few hypotheses here...

-TangleFoot-

Let's start with the obvious one: how exactly are you 'ejecting' the disk?

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

Previously I would right click the icon and select 'Eject'. But the drive is not, as mentioned, recognised as 'removable storage' and, therefore, no option to Eject is displayed when it is right clicked.

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

Let's start with the obvious one: how exactly are you 'ejecting' the disk?

-TangleFoot-

Tried left-clicking the icon in the system tray?

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

I looked there - no icon

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

Tried left-clicking the icon in the system tray?

-TangleFoot-

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S. wrote: »

I looked there - no icon

Okey dokey. Make and model of system?

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

hang on - I've checked again and the icon appears briefly in the tray before migrating to a little pull down (or pull up menu). A message is displayed when I click it to the effect that it is being used and cannot be ejected - perhaps because it's not recognised as a removable drive

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

Okey dokey. Make and model of system?