[RESOLVED] New SATA HDD seen as "removable hardware"???

Ok,,here goes,,Main PC re-build. Mobo=Asus A8N-E,Socket 939w\AMD Athlon64(2.3Gb).2GB DDR400 memory. Been running with 2 ATA Seagate 120Gb ATA133 drives. Both on Promise Controller Card. LG DVD burner on IDE primary as Master. LiteOn DVD-ROM on IDE secondary as master. Needed to do a re-build because cooling fans(4-80mm) were goin' south(besides needing cleanout). Decided to get a SATA HDD. Prices are getting more reasonable. This board has 4 SATA connectors. Bought a Seagate 250GB SATA Barracuda. Removed the Promise controller card and my config now is: New Seagate running on SATA-1 and properly recognized in bios. One of the old drives connected as slave to secondary IDE board connector for storage(with DVD-ROM)and properly recognized in bios also. Fresh install of Win XP-Pro,sp2 on SATA drive after creating 4 partitions. Storage drive has 3 partitions.
Here's where it gets funner,,,Ctrl panel>admin tools>computer mgment sees new SATA drive as: "Disk 1" and partitions are properly recognized as C:>D:>E: and F:\ . Old drive is recognized as "Disk 0" and it's 3 partitions are properly recognized. But,,,it is seen "above" the SATA drive in both the top and bottom windows. And,,in Device Mangler it shows as the "first" drive. If this isn't enough? On the task bar in the running programs,I have an icon that relates to USB hardware. Hover the pointer over it and it says: "safely remove hardware"!?! I clicked it for grins and sure enough,the window that comes up shows my "removeable hardware" is the SATA drive!? :confused: Oh yeah,,I(also for grins/curiosity) told this wonderfully smart OS to remove the hardware. Up came a box telling me it couldn't be removed right now because it's in use! Well,,DUHHH>>> :rolleyes:
Do any of you very intelligent peolple perhaps have a solution to this quirk? Or at least maybe a reg hack or such to get rid of the "remove hardware" icon? The 'Puter is running just fine,but this really bugs me!
Any help/opinions greatly appreciated!
Thanks! :)

Best you can do is to use the Hide Icon function;)

A SATA drive is removeable - SATA is hot-swappable (not if it's the system drive of course... ). If a removeable drive is optimized for performance, the safe removal icon will show. Since optimizing your system drive for safe removal is not very sensible, :D, have you tried in the drive properties to see if you can uncheck "Drive is removeable" ? I don't have anything at the moment with a SATA system drive to look.

I have the same "Safely remove hardware" issue on my Asus mobo - it seems to be particularly an Asus phenomena. I haven't seen the same thing on other brands, and my SATA drives don't show up in safely remove hardware on my C2D rig with a Gigabyte board.

I never did find a way of removing the SATA drives from there on the Asus board, and I just decided to live with it in the end.

Not sure what the cause is. My SATA drives weren't seen as removable with my old Socket A Abit build (using RAID-0) but the same HDDs are now on my Socket AM2 Abit build and show as removable in 2000, XP and Vista (no RAID employed).

Thanks for the comeback Guys,,,Well,,I've been thru all the hidey holes in the registry and elsewhere to see what I can find and no go. The reg says it's SATA and enum's it properly. Guess I'll just live with the icon. Can use it as a reminder as to the oxymoron: "microsoft works" I 'spose...:rolleyes: :D

I know someone set this to resolved.:) But just in case ya'all might be interested. I found a way to get rid of(well,,hide)the hardware remove icon. Just use the steps at Kelly's Korner under "icons-Notification area". You have to specify which ones to show and which ones to hide,and you get the lil' arrow,but it works. And looks much better than the ugly one that XP put there...:rolleyes: :D

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm

I've had this same issue with a few new builds. I usually build with Gigabyte boards, but now that Nick mentions it, may be be an Asus issue.
I've never found a solution for this either.

Thanks RR, I'll remember the icon trick in case I set up SATA on my Asus board & get that effect.

Drop of correction fluid in the bottom right of your monitor works a treat. :D

I know this is a couple of months old, Ridgrunr but I had another situation like this and remembered you had asked about it. Found your solution and was able to solve my problem. So........thanks :)

Glad to hear it gave you an answer PL. 'Bout 2 weeks ago,I upgraded my CPU to the AMD2 dual core. Was interested to see what 'that' would cause,but the only thing that happened was I can no longer use my trusty ol' Reg Cleaner program. The new CPU seems to cause it to run too fast and it locks up after about 3 seconds of the scan. :D
Oh well,no biggy,but I miss the option of easily opening the startup menu with it and removing unneeded items that way rather than from 'msconfig'...

Wow!! Ridge coming up in the world eh? Good for you. Are you still using your AIW?

Nope PL, left ATI to the buzzards several months ago when I did the major re-build with mobo,CPU,2 gigs memory and such. Now use a PNY Nvidia7600 Video card and to capture(and watch) video,the Hauppauge PVR 150 card. Very happy with the present system...:)

Well, that sounds like a nice system. :) And since you now have the same Hauppauge card I do, you can help me set mine up. LOL