Any any good with computer problems need help

[desiderata]

I have a dell laptop and it has been fine then last night I connected a western digital hard drive that has my sewing stuff on for my embriodery machine. No problem there I used it to transfer stuff to a compact flash card for my sewing machine then removed the hard drive. This morning I put my computer on and it flashed up a message saying the usb item on my computer was not recognised, this has now been coming up all day , there is nothing attached to my computer . when I look into the devices and printers it shows a rectangler item in silver and says unknown device needs trouble shooting. x
its driving me nuts !!! any ideas anyone please ?

[loocyloo]

sorry, no idea. i'm useless too.

i had to phone Dh at work the other day as a box popped up saying 'dialogue box open' ... i had no idea what it meant and i couldn't close anything down/move anything to find it. dh popped back in his lunch hour and within a second it was working again!

dh said did you disconnect the usb or hard drive correctly? apparently you shouldn't just turn off/unplug cables from the side of the machine, you should use a thing on the screen to turn it off first! sorry if that isn't much help, i know i'm always getting moaned at for just pulling out the camera usb rather than disconnecting it

[rickysmiths]

Dh and ds recommend plugging back in what you had in last night and seeing if the computer will let you disconnect properly on screen before you unplug them.

[sarah707]

Did you disconnect using the 'safely remove hardware' button... or just pull it out when you had finished?

If you just pulled it out it might still be trying to process.

Like Ricky says - plug it back in, let it finish what it's trying to do - then use 'safely remove hardware' to take it out.

Hth

[desiderata]

thanks guys Ive plugged it back in and the hard drive is working but still getting the message popping up where do I find the remove safely bit I cant find it anywhere ?

[sonia ann]

on the bottom of your screen on the tool bar usually on the right will be an icon "safely remove hardware"
plug it in then look for the icon to click on

[desiderata]

Thank you just found it in hidden icons, never knew that was there x how thick am I xx

[rickysmiths]

Well Done!!

[loocyloo]

well done!

the power of the forum !

[sonia ann]

has it cured the problem?

[sarah707]

Now you know where it is... always always use it when you unplug something!

Not using it can cause all sorts of problems including broken back up devices.

Well done you!