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I use my USB external hard drive on both my XP laptop and 98 desktop. The XP has an icon in the systray to safely remove the drive. The Win98 had one there briefly when I first installed the enclosure, but then it disappeared and never came back. Where would I find it to make it available so I don't have to shut down before removing the drive?
Thanks in advance,
Chas
What I do on 98 machines is right-click the drive's icon in Windows Explorer, select Eject then wait for the little light to go out on the USB flash drive.
Thanks for responding SpywareDr. I don't seem to have an "eject" option on my right click. I have partitioned the drive; perhaps that made a difference?
Chas
I still can't find a way to "safely remove" the external HD on the Win98 machine. As I said, there was an icon that appeared in the Systray immediately after I installed the drive, so the function has to be there somewhere. I've just been shutting down Win98 and crossing my fingers. So far, there doesn't seem to be any damage to the drive. However, Win98 doesn't shut down automatically like usual; it hangs on shutdown at a blinking cursor. Any help would be appreciated; I searched Windows Help in vain. Perhaps if someone knows the name of the file that runs the "safely remove" I might be able to find it?
Thanks,
Chas
If you have disabled write caching you no longer need to 'safely remove' most devices. Just wait until it stops flashing, just like the old floppy drives.
Your shutdown problems are more likely related to power and ACPI issues.
Thank you for responding ProfessorU,
I don't understand what you mean when you say "disabled write caching" so I don't know if I have done it or not. The shut down problem only happens when the external drive is connected.
Chas
I don't know if it's the same in Win98 or not, but in WinXP you can go to Device Manager, go to the Hard Drive Properties dialog, then in the Policies tab you have options for "Optimise for quick removal" or Optimise for performance". If you have those options in your W98, choose the first one and you won't have to be concerned about it any more.
No luck; I could not find any such options in Win98. Thanks anyway.
Chas
Accucadd > Write-behind caching.
http://www.accucadd.com/TechNotes/Ca...ndCache.htm#95More like this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+SearchQuote:
Windows 95/98/MEStart at the desktop.(Also check for the existence and content of the config and autoexec files, below.)
Right-click on My Computer, then left-click on Properties.
Click on the Performance tab at the top.
Click on the File System button at the bottom.
Click on the Troubleshooting tab at the top.
Click on Disable write-behind caching for all drives to put a tick next to it.
Make sure it is ticked.
Click on OK to close the File System window.
Click on OK to close the System Properties window.
...
Smartdrive
Windows 95, 98 and ME can be set to start the computer by using the Config.Sys and Autoexec.Bat files. The Smartdrive facility can be included here, which also can control write-behind caching. It is a good idea to have these files on the computer on Win 95/98 systems. Windows 3.11 systems must have these files and they should be similar.
The Config.Sys file should look like:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
BUFFERS=32
FILES=64
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
STACKS=9,256
The Buffers and Files commands must be large enough to handle all the files that multiple Bookmark users may want to have open at one time. This can be up to 6 files for each computer accessing the server – e.g. 6 x 10 or 60 files, for 10 workstations, for example.
The Autoexec.Bat file should look like:
@ECHO OFF
PATH=C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
LH DOSKEY
LH \WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
The /X on the Smartdrv command disables wirte-behind (sic - 'write'-behind) caching on all drives.
...continues...