How to reconnect SATA drive disconnected by software?

[milleron]

In another forum, a fellow was asking if there's a way to make his SATA HDs not appear in the list of removable devices displayed by the "safely-remove-hardware" Tray applet.

I have XP SP2, and, as an experiment, I clicked the SATA drive I use to store Ghost images. It promptly disappeared from the computer -- no entries in Explorer and a yellow bang in Device Manager. I could discover only two ways to reconnect it: either restart the computer or open the case, disconnect the data cable, and then reconnect it.

• Scanning for hardware changes in Device Manager did nothing. A "safely-removed" SATA HD appears here as "enabled," so it's not a matter of re-enabling it.
  
  The device appears (with a yellow bang) in the list of devices in Control Panel/Add-Hardware, but it's not possible to reinstall it (it's already installed).
  
  I found nothing on the subject in a Google search or in the XP "Help and Support Center."

Isn't there an easier way to reconnect a SATA drive that's been soft-disconnected by this little applet?

Ron

 

[NogginBoink]

In Disk Mangement, right click and rescan for disks.

 

[milleron]

Can you verify that this works for you?

On my computer, the "Rescan Disks" option does nothing at all. It may just be a glitch in my setup, however, so I'd love to know if you've gotten it to work on yours.

Ron

 

[NogginBoink]

Nope, that was just a guess on my part. I don't have SATA to test with.

 

[corkyg]

Usually, a reboot will fix the soft disconnect. Also, then go to Device Manager, and right click on the SATA drive, Properties, Advanced, and Policies. Check the top box and that unchecks the bottom - that will remove that drive from the auspices of the Safely Remove icon in the tray. It will then be "hot pluggable."

If those are grayed out, then it is because your SATA drive is an internal drive linked to a RAID controller. In that case, it should not appear on that tray icon either.

 

[Nothinman]

If it's on a controller that you're not booted from you could remove the controller from device manager and then rescan for devices, it should find the controller and rescan it for drives.