Guest roadstomadness Posted August 20, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 I have a ton of stuff on my external hard drive, which happens to be my E drive. I somehow managed to click safely remove hardware, thus removing my E drive. I went to Hardware Manager to try and recover it and got the following meg; Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for "safe removal", but it has not been removed from the computer. (Code 47) To fix this problem, unplug this device from your computer and then plug it in again. I have not rebooted or anything yet. How do I restore this drive w/o losing its contents...? Thank you very much
Guest Paul Randall Posted August 20, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 Re: Undo Safely Remove Hardware Comment inline "roadstomadness" <roadstomadness@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4CB39A00-EA68-4FB3-ABF3-8946EDA1118D@microsoft.com... >I have a ton of stuff on my external hard drive, which happens to be my E > drive. > > I somehow managed to click safely remove hardware, thus removing my E > drive. Yes, I do this all the time when I want to remove a USB device, a hard drive for instance. Perhaps to take it to another computer and make a copy of what is on the hard drive. > I went to Hardware Manager to try and recover it and got the following > meg; > > Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for > "safe removal", but it has not been removed from the computer. (Code 47) That message explains it. It has been prepared to be unplugged. Nothing has been erased. It is safe to unplug. > To fix this problem, unplug this device from your computer and then plug > it > in again. This message tells you that if you changed your mind -- you don't want to use the device somewhere else -- and you want to use the device on this computer, you must first unplug it, and then plug it back in. When you plug it back in, the computer will recognise it, install drivers if necessary, and will pop up a window of some kind indicating it is installed and ready. > I have not rebooted or anything yet. > > How do I restore this drive w/o losing its contents...? Unplug it, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in. > Thank you very much Hope this helps, -Paul Randall
Guest Tom Porterfield Posted August 20, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 Re: Undo Safely Remove Hardware roadstomadness wrote: > I have a ton of stuff on my external hard drive, which happens to be my E > drive. > > I somehow managed to click safely remove hardware, thus removing my E drive. > > I went to Hardware Manager to try and recover it and got the following meg; > > Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for > "safe removal", but it has not been removed from the computer. (Code 47) > > To fix this problem, unplug this device from your computer and then plug it > in again. > > I have not rebooted or anything yet. > > How do I restore this drive w/o losing its contents...? Your data is safe so nothing to worry about there. Easiest thing to do is simply disconnect the drive and then reconnect it. If that isn't easy, then rebooting the PC will also work fine. -- Tom Porterfield
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