When you connect a removable PCI Express device, such as an eSATA ExpressCard device, to a Windows Vista-based computer, the device does not appear in Safely Remove Hardware dialog box. Therefore, you cannot safely remove the device.

Consider the following scenario:

• On Windows Vista-based computer, you connect a removable storage device, such as a USB device, to the computer. After you do that, Windows Vista assigns a drive letter to the removable device in the system device context.
• You disconnect the removable device from the computer, and then you map a network drive by using the drive letter that was previously assigned to the removable device.

In this scenario, if you reconnect the removable storage device to the computer, Windows Vista cannot find the device.

Note: If you disconnect the network drive, the drive letter is assigned to the removable storage device, and you can access the device.

Consider the following scenario:

• You connect a removable storage device to a Windows Vista-based computer.
• This storage device has a DCIM folder in its root directory.
• This storage device has an Autorun.inf file in its root directory.

In this scenario, a Windows Explorer window appears instead of the AutoPlay dialog box. Therefore, you cannot start the program that is configured in the Autorun.inf file.

If this storage device has a DCIM folder in its root directory but does not have an Autorun.inf file in its root directory, options for viewing pictures appear in an AutoRun dialog box. Therefore, you can select the program that you want.

You insert storage media into a removable drive on a Windows Vista-based computer. However, the volume label of the storage media is not updated. Additionally, the AutoPlay dialog box is not displayed.

Note: This problem occurs intermittently.

When you “hot detach” a removable hard disk device from a Windows Vista-based computer, a Warning event that resembles the following may be logged in the System log:

Event ID: 12
The device device_name disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

Additionally, if the disk is formatted by using the NTFS file system, a Warning event that resembles the following may be logged in the System log:

Event ID: 57
The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur.

This problem may occur if the disk is “surprise removed.” For example, this behavior may occur if you remove the disk without using the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area to stop the disk first. This problem may occur even though the disk uses an interface that supports surprise removal, such as a universal serial bus (USB) interface or an IEEE 1394 interface.

Vista has a feature called The Forgotten Password Wizard. With it, you can create a special disk to reset your password if you forget it. For it to work, you need to act now, while you still know your password! Keep reading →