Re-mount USB device after removal on Windows

Solution 1:

When you've click the eject/safely remove, go into device manager (Control panel -> System -> Hardware Tab).

Under USB, you should see the device with a (!) icon. If you view the device, it will say something like:

Windows cannot use this hardware device because its been prepared for "safe removal".

Change the view of Device manager using the View Menu to "Devices by connection". Find the parent USB hub. Right click it and disable the hub, then right click and enable the hub.

Solution 2:

When you "safely remove" a USB HDD - it stops spinning. I believe there's a USB command to turn the device off (sleep mode, actually). So the thing you need is how to turn the device back on.

The application Safelyremove has a command-line tool that is capable of returning the device back: "Returning just stopped device back!".

It is shareware, but it works :)

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Solution 3:

I just tested this out and was able to verify this works in Windows Vista and also verified it works in Windows XP. Disabling and re-enabling the USB device directly did not reinitialize it. The steps below did.

After the device has been "safely removed" go into Device Manager.

Find the USB Mass Storage Device, right-click on it, and select uninstall.

Next, one at at time, disable, and re-enable the USB Host controllers. Take your time with this step, as one of the controllers will reinitialize the USB device.

None of this required a reboot, so it should meet your needs. Ignore any prompts for a reboot.

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Solution 4:

Command line mountvol or mount. Type in mountvol in command prompt to see your options. It explains all of the options in there. Then create a batch file. You can access the batch file from the remote desktop. Be sure to enable permissions in remote desktop. Try it out.