Me, then John Francis:
> If I remove a CF card (or any of these) through the "Safely Remove
> Hardware" method, I cannot then insert a new card (or re-insert the
> thumbdrive or turn the external hard drive back on) without rebooting.
> Windows just won't recognize it.
That's exactly counter to my experience. I, too, am running Windows XP
(SP2). I regularly use thumb drives and/or external (USB & Firewire)
hard drives, all of which require me to use "Safely Remove Hardware".
I've never run into the problem you describe. Sure, the device goes
away when I click on the device in the "Safely Remove Hardware" pop-up.
But the next time I plug in a device plug-and-play detects it, and it
shows up just fine.
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Okay, I've just been experimenting. For the hard drive, I can go through
"Safely Remove Hardware," turn it off, turn it back on again, and
Windows recognizes it. For the Thumbdrive, I can do this, remove it,
reinsert it, and Windows recognizes it.
I never even tried it! Thanks, guys. The reason I didn't try it is
because it didn't work on my previous two XP installations. But I just
realized that those machines are both five years old. Now I am setting
up a new laptop. So it is an old hardware/bios issue.
With my Sandisk card reader, which has four slots, I cannot shut down
just one slot. I have to shut down the entire reader. Then I have to
remove and reattach the usb connection. But I can live with that.
But is there a way to get this to work with my older hardware?
Joe