If you’ve requested for the free license of USB Safely Remove, then probably you have tried the new feature which is the “Return Device Back!”. After you had stopped the device, but still did not unplug it, sometimes it is quite useful to return it back into the system. For example if you remembered that you forgot to write a file to the external drive. In order to do it, you have to physically reconnect the device, however sometimes it’s quite inconvenient to do if the device is connected to the rear panel of the computer.

Enable USB drive without reinserting

USB Safely Remove claims to be the first Windows program that allows you to return stopped device back and I thought that there isn’t a way to do it without using a software. Thanks to Ed for his valuable tip, we can now remount the ejected USB device with a few simple mouse clicks without reinserting (unplug and insert) the USB device.

Here’s what you need to do to have the “return device back” feature without using USB Safely Remove software.

1. Right click My Computer and select Properties (or you can simultaneously press Win+Pause/Break key). In System Properties window, go to the Hardware tab and then click the Device Manager button. In Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can just click the Device Manager link located at the left hand sidebar when you are at the System Properties window.

2. Click View from the menu bar and select “Devices by Connection“.

3. Find the parent USB Root Hub of the USB device that has a yellow color exclamation mark. Right click on the USB Root Hub and select Disable. Again right click on the same USB Root Hub that you’ve just disabled and this time select Enable.
Re-enable USB drive device

Voila! The drive letter has been returned back to My Computer and the autorun or autoplay window will appear if it is enabled. Since this can be done in Windows itself, Microsoft Windows development team should consider adding a feature to easily re-enable the drive after ejecting without unplugging and reinserting. This tip has been verified to work on Windows XP, Windows Vista and even the latest Windows 7. No doubt that unplug and reinsert it way faster than this method IF the USB port is easily accessible. If not, this method would save you from bending your back and trying to reach the back of the case.

Thanks Ed for sharing something that took him 2 years to discover!

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