External HDD works & shows up in My Computer but not in Safely Remove

[Iconoclastix]

External HDD works & shows up in My Computer but not in Safely Remove

Hi everyone, I did do a search for this before posting but most of the threads I found were people with a problem opposite to mine - their HDDs appeared in the Safely Remove Hardware window but didn't show up in My Computer.

I am having exactly the opposite issue - I just purchased this external HDD, it is a 2TB USB3 Seagate portable external HDD. When I first got the device, it seemed to behave normally (Windows would make a sound - I'm running Windows 8.1 x64 FYI - when I plugged it in, it would prompt me for what to do with it, and I was able to right-click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the tray to eject it). I've only had it for about a week (maybe just over a week now) and while it still appears to be working fine, I've noticed that it no longer makes the sound when I connect it to my computer, and it also no longer appears in the Safely Remove Hardware window even though it's connected. However, I seem to still be able to use the drive fine - it shows up in My Computer, I can read and write files from/to it, and there doesn't seem to be anything else strange about it other than the fact that I can no longer safely remove it.

Can anyone tell me if this is a common problem? Is it serious? I have always liked to safely remove my connected devices because I fear something will get corrupted if I just yank it out of the port. Is there a reason why it doesn't show up in the Safely Remove Hardware window anymore and is there a way that I can get it to do that again?

PS - this issue seems specific to my home computer (again, running Windows 8.1 x64) since when I connect it to my work computer (Windows 7 x64) it shows up in the Safely Remove Hardware window just fine. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[GokAy]

You can try HotSwap! freeware

Remove external, restart, run drivecleanup as admin (Drive Tools for Windows), restart, re-install external

Or removing filters Step by Step Guide to Deleting the UpperFilters and LowerFilters Registry Values

 

[Iconoclastix]

HotSwap looks great, thanks very much for pointing me to it, I will try it out later tonight! Thanks again for your help!