I get that problem crop up every once in a while. I plug something in and the Icon doesn't show up on the task bar. Usually if I reboot/logout and back in it fixes itself.
I ran into a similar issue and found a free utility that makes the process of Safely Removing USB drives even easier.
USB Disk Ejector:
http://quick.mixnmojo.com/usb-disk-ejector
I just put a shortcut to it on the Quick Launch toolbar.
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http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
You want number 5 in/on the list.
Hope all works out. 
She does the accounts for this company so all of the Accounting Packages & Data are involved with this NB. The company in question only uses NB's because they can take them home when they leave the office and as this is sort of a Temporary Office On Site it makes sense.
I just don't think it would be terribly cleaver to have it go down and take the Data with it for some strange reason. 
Things would get to Panic Stations if the External Drive was to loose it's Partition Information and need reformatting. I just couldn't trust this one to navigate to the Device Manager to stop the drive. She's still coming to terms with a different version of MYOB and she has just stopped complaining about the differences. It's defiantly a PICNIC Problem with that package. But as it's not related to the Hardware that I supplied I can sort of live with it as I know that's it's going to go away eventually. I was out there last week and it was working fine I just had a look while I was there just in case any problems had arisen but it was fine then along with the rest of the NB's in the place.
One of the Problems with Windows is that there are 20 Billion ways to do things and unless you know exactly what was done it's very hard to track down how things like this happened.
Anyway I have a complete Image of the unit fully loaded for them so it's a simple process to reimage it and not much time is required.
Maybe I'm just lazy and am taking the easy way out here but I don't see the point wasting hours and not being any better off and still having to apply the Image again. After all a few updates and Restoring the Data isn't going to take all that long.
Col
... since the user was in the cubicle next to mine at the time, I didn't have to go very far to tinker with it. She dealt with the problem by going into the device manager to stop the device until the day she left the company. I re-imaged that computer for the next user and the problem has never returned.
It makes me wonder if that particular 'click happy' user had clicked some box that says 'never show me this again' somewhere and I could never find it in the registry to reverse it. Although, even when logged into that computer as the Administrator the icon wouldn't show up and creating a new user account had the same outcome. 
It just seemed a bit strange to me and when I looked it didn't make much sense but it obviously wasn't there and I could look in the Backup Drive so it was defiantly connected at the time.
A Reimage is probably the best option here at the moment but I just wondered if anyone else had found a solution. While it's not New it's by no means od either and it hasn't had anything but M$ Updates applied since I delivered it so other than several Thumb Drives that get connected I'm not really sure what else to look for here.
Looks as if I have a bit of a Drive tomorrow eh latter today at least and I'll have a try of a few things but if I need to spend more than 15 minutes messing around I think it will just be easier to reimage then restore the Backups. At least that way it's going to work.
Col
... and posted questions twice here on TR.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=101&threadID=211589
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=101&threadID=222909
Nothing we tried would work. The ultimate fix was to re-image the darned thing and start over. Since then, the icon hasn't disappeared even so much as one time, including when we used the same Thumb Drive in it which originally started the problem.
You can't beat Remote Access if it is available, it's been a K saver for me a few times over the past few years.
Good Luck.
I would reapply the image before I tried one of the USB Removal App's but it is was to continue to happen I would probably consider it then.
Not sure what's actually happened here as it was working 2 days ago and nothing new has been installed so I've been told.
But I had a look at it last week when I was over there doing something else and that was after the latest M$ Updates where released so I'm leaning to something on a USB Thumb Drive causing this or something along those lines. Though I'm not exactly sure what's happened here yet. I just don't want to have to go all the way over there again twice in a 7 Day period it's a bit of a drive there. 
I'm not against driving out there but I would at least like to have some clue what I'm walking into before hand.
Col
Anyone run across the USB Safely Remove Icon
I haven't looked at the NB yet but it's a MSI Megabook EX600 delivered in September 2008.
Other than the usual new user issues with software the staff member who has this has not had any other issues as yet. I haven't seen this unit yet just got the phone call a few minutes ago and from a quick cursory look via Remote Desktop it seems to be working properly other wise.
Just that the Safely Remove Icon fails to show when any USB Device is plugged in.
As this person does daily backups to an external HDD I would like to get to it ASAP preferably before the Partition Information on the external drive gets hosed but I can not find anything relating to this after a look through M$ Knowledge Base.
Col