Hello!
OK - right to the point - why the hell does Windows show that I can “safely remove hardware”, where the device “to be safely removed” is my only SATA HDD???
I wouldn’t care much, but can I make that small icon in the bottom right corner of my screen go away, 'cause someone could accidentaly stop my HDD…
Which is faulty - the chipset driver or the BIOS? Or maybe something else?
Any help?
SATA was developed with hot swappable capability. So windows recognizes it as a detachable device.
But, even if someone messed with it and ended up “Safely Removing the Hardware” they would be prompted saying you cannot eject the device etc..
If you want to remove the device from the safely remove hardware application then I think that this is a fix for nForce chipsets:
Warning: always backup your registry (Run > regedit > File > Export) before it is modified.
[CODE]For nForce chipsets, you can add the following to registry:
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ nvata,
add DWORD DisableRemovable, set to 1.
Reboot.[/CODE]
Make sure it is in SATA_1 or SATA_RAID1.
Please post an update with your progress.
Thanks for the tips, Chris!
Well, I have a ViA-based chipset (can’t remember its precise name, but it’s the one ASUS P5VDC-MX uses). But, anyways, I’ll try that 2nd suggestion of yours later today and keep this updated! 
I see your chipset is VIA P4M800. My only suggestion for that is to remove the Safely Remove Icon from your system tray. To do this download, install & run Icon Remover then select “Remove the Safely Remove Hardware Icon” to remove it.. and “Show the Safely Remove Hardware Icon” to show it..
One thing I forgot to mention - if for the windows faultyness - the “safely remove hardware” icon wasn’t there from the start. I have no idea what might’ve caused it to appear, but I was doing the following:
1)Bought a clean PC (no icon yet )
2)Installed winxp W/ sp2 (no icon yet)
3)Updated the BIOS (no icon yet)
4)since that I’ve reinstalled my BIOS like 3 times and somewhere between these reinstallations the icon appeared.
P.S. reinstalling the BIOS might appear to be completely insane and stupid of me, but it did tribute to the stability and compatibility of my system afterwards.
What was the problem causing you to reflash your BIOS?
and also make sure you have the latest BIOS update from your manufacturer.
Well, system instability. I was browsing through forums and several articles, finding that BIOS updates are ‘not recommended’, since it’s quite possible to mess it all up. I carefully searched the newest BIOS version - right from the manufacturers website for the update.
I wouldn’t recommend you doing so, just in case you have something like a USB Drive or something. To properly remove such a thing, the tray icon is needed, because just right-clicking the drive and hitting ‘Eject’ will not work properly.
There’s not much you can do about it showing up as removable, since it technically is removable, as said before. If you had another SATA HDD in your computer, you actually could hit the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon, and physically take it out of your computer. But besides that ‘fix’ for the nvidia chipsets, that’s pretty much it, at least to my knowledge.
It’s not such a big deal, though, since you can never remove it. Windows doesn’t allow it to be removed because it’s installed onto that drive.
I was worrying so much because, yeah, USB devices are being removed in that manor, but not (so I assumed) SATA(II) HDDs. Shouldn’t Windows understand that it itself is sitting on the device and there shouldn’t even be such a option (it’s like some suicidial guy ties a stone to himself and asks every pedestrian on the street to throw him into a river).
It’s okay if Windows doesn’t let me unmount that HDD and this issue doesn’t influence the HDDs effectiveness (speed is why I don’t have a IDE drive).
But still - that quite odd and I’d really like to get things back to normal (as it was at the start) - like - without that freakin’ icon hanging around.
P.S.By the way, the VIA P4M800 chipset is the North Bridge, not the South one, where the SATAII controllers are placed. Maybe the chipset driver needs some reinstalling?