Remove Hardware From Safely Remove Hardware

Alright. So I finally got my new computer and slapped Windows 7 Pro x64 on it. Since my case has a slot to plug in an external drive, I used AHCI-mode to support hot-swapping. (And yes, I actually will use it)

Unfortunately, this has caused the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon to appear continuously in the system tray - giving me the option to eject my system drive. Being the minimalist I am, this useless icon annoys me to no end. Is there any way to tell windows not to add the HDD to the safely remove hardware menu (and thus make the menu disappear when there's no other devices)? I've been looking around and can't find any solutions.

I am NOT looking to disable the safely remove hardware entirely - I still want it to show up for other devices, just not the system drive. Also, I don't want to just hide it with the expand/collapse menu - call me picky.

http://www.killertechtips.com/2009 [...] rmanently/

I have 3 eSATA drives which I use without AHCI-mode, 1 of these for over 3 years without any problems.
I don't get any Safely Remove Hardware message, they just don't register in add/remove. I just wait a minute after file operations before shutting them off, never had a problem.

I'd rather not run the risk of data loss using IDE mode. Just not worth it.

As far as letter on the HDD? It's the default system drive letter (aka C drive).

It just bothers me that it gives me the option to eject the system drive, and even if it would let you.... it wouldn't exactly turn out well.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey