Safely remove usb device

Microsoft has recently released a KnowledgeBase article KB2401954 which gives instructions on how to modify certain registry settings to force Windows 7 and Vista to power down USB devices after using the Safely Remove Hardware feature. You can make these changes either globally or on a per-device basis.

After making these changes, the power/activity light on USB drives will go out after safely removing the hardware. The behavior will now be the same as in Windows XP.

thanks rbailin, good find.
I tried the Global Setting option but my usb LED remains illuminated after safely remove. would you know how to find out the "vvvvpppprrrr" info so I can try the Per-Device Setting option?
I tried the devices properties, details tab but not sure which key identifies the required digits.

Nahtimu said:

thanks rbailin, good find.
I tried the Global Setting option but my usb LED remains illuminated after safely remove. would you know how to find out the "vvvvpppprrrr" info so I can try the Per-Device Setting option?
I tried the devices properties, details tab but not sure which key identifies the required digits.

You must reboot the system for the change to take effect. Spelling and capitalization is important, the new key under usbhub is called "HubG", the new DWORD is called "DisableOnSoftRemove" and its value must be set to 1.

Thanks again, it was the good old reboot Tested again and works perfectly :)

I should document all these little tweaks for future Win7 installations. But hopefully these wil be included in a patch release.

Thanks rbailin! It was exactly what I'm looking for a long time. It's returned XP feature that help recognize which usb device you actually turned off. It help very when I got many unnamed devices plug in at one time in my comp.

Volja, "safely remove" tells windows to flush any write buffers to disk, and unmounts the partition. Windows normally keeps some files in a write cache that it flushes periodically. If you remove the media before the flush has occured you may get filesystem or file damage (because not all writes have been completed). Whether or not the disk is spinning is irrelevant. It's whether the drive is mounted or not.

I don't see the difference if windows cuts power to the drive or if power is manually cut by unplugging it. no power is no power no matter how you look at it, the drive will spin down just the same. If your drive wheezes when it loses power that sounds like a drive issue, not a windows issue. What I wonder is if there is any way to remount a safely removed drive without unplugging it? And finally, my PSP will never give me the okay for safely remove, I've never been able to figure out why, any ideas on how to fix that?