Removed the wrong hardware

[Lee G]

Hi,

I was using a memory stick and when I clicked the Safely Remove Hardware icon I then clicked the wrong line, and I think I have removed something I shouldn't!! I meant to click on the line USB Mass Storage Device - Drive K, but for some reason (idiot perhaps?) I clicked the line above which said the same, but it had 4 drives (F-L I think).

Since then the SD photo card reader doesn't work and I'm wondering if this is connected to what I have just removed. When I go into "Computer" there are 4 icons missing under the "Devices with Removeable Storage" section.

Apologies if I'm not making any sense, I'm not massively PC literate, but I was wondering if I can fix what I've done, and how?

Thanks in advance

Lee

 

[Paperdoc]

Since this happened, have you shut down your machine and rebooted? I would expect if you do that with those pieces of hardware still installed, Windows will recognize their existence and re-connect them or re-install a driver if necessary. In other words, it just might fix itself for you.

 

[sminlal]

If you have one of those internal card readers, they're usually connected internally via USB. When you "safely remove" a USB device, the only way to get it back again is to unplug and replug it, or to reboot. It's not practical to unplug/replug an internal card reader because it requires opening up the case, finding it's internal connection to the motherboard, and removing/replacing it. So a reboot is really the only choice.

That's why I don't use internal card readers, but rather an external reader with a USB cable that I can easily remove and replace (it's also much handier because it's right beside my keyboard).

 

[Lee G]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply, I'm glad to report that Paperdoc is the winner, I did a reboot and sure enough those 4 drives have magically reappeared. As I suspected they were related to the photo memory card reader thingy (excuse my technical terms ), as I have been able to upload photo's this morning.

Panic over, I'l try not to bother you again

 

[Paperdoc]

Every once in a while we're all relieved to hear that a simple solution worked first time! Congrats to you.