Sometimes XP loses the USB icon / eject icon on the system tray. Right clicking external USB hard drives do not always have the Eject button.
here is a quick short cut to opening the "safely remove hardware" dialog box
On XP Desktop, Right click -> select New -> Shortcut
In "Type the location of the item", cut and paste the command below, including the percentage sign.
In the next screen, save it as EJECT USB or any name. Now, you have a short cut that will pop up the USB devices to stop and eject.
%windir%\system32\RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
