T21 UltraBay in System Tray

[iann070]

My T21 has a DVD-ROM Drive installed in the UltraBay which shows up in the System Tray as a removable drive, I guess it's there so that you can hot swap it by clicking on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon when running Windows XP.

Is it possible so that I can get Windows XP to recognise the DVD-ROM as a internal drive and not have it show up in the System Tray?
Sometimes when I'm unplugging a USB device using the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, I have nearly clicked on the DVD-ROM by accident, so I would rather it not be in the System Tray at all.

I don't have any other hardware to install in the UltraBay and have never had any need to remove the DVD-ROM Drive, so don't really need it in the System Tray.

[dsigma6]

disable easy eject. google it.

[iann070]

disable easy eject. google it.

I've Googled, all I can find is the IBM "EasyEject Utility" which is a 6MB download, is this what you are referring to, or is there a simple registry hack or control panel setting.

[dsigma6]

im in a rush so i cant look further into this right now, but i believe if you check in msconfig there is a process running with a name like ez...something.

check it out, ill post again when i have time.

[iann070]

After more searching I think I found the solution.
There are 2 files that load when booting XP:

IBMBAY2N.EXE (UltraBay HotSwap CPL Loader)
IBMBAYSN.EXE (Sound for HotSwapping)

I'll have a look tonight and see if disabling them do the trick.

[slipnfall]

Those two files are simply IBMs own utilities to facilitate the insertion/removal of ultrabay devices. I'm not familiar with what functionality they hold over the internal windows HotPlug features, if any. It does not appear(just from a quick 5min search) that this 'feature' can be configured in a manner you wish(selectively removing the devices from the list). That is a core component of windows and ties in directly with hardware designed to be 'plugnplay' and hotswapable. If any option would exist it would be in the configuration for the specefic device, ie device manager. What you can do is disable(read: hide) the icon, and replace it with a 3rd party program like http://safelyremove.com/. But that's just another TSR application running in the background.

[iann070]

After searching my hard drive, those two files aren't even on my system anyway, I guess they are part of the IBM EasyEject Utility.

Just had a look at that icon remover but I think it removes the system tray icon completely, for all USB devices, not just the DVD-ROM drive.
I regularly use USB flash drives and USB hard drives so would still need these devices to show in the system tray, also as you mentioned, it's just another TSR running in the background slowing everything down even more.

Back to square one.