Starting and Stopping External Disk Drives using software (Windows 7)

[RSDonovan]

I have 4 external drives attached to my laptop via USB cables. I'm running Windows 7.

I use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray to disconnect them when I want to take the laptop out.

When I return, the cables are reinserted so the laptop recognizes them.

1. Is there any way I could set up a batch program to close the disks so I could just click a desktop icon to close all the disks in one go?

2. Is there any way to close/restart the drives without removing the USB leads? That is so I could shut the drives down when I don't need them. Not all the drives have an on/off switch and the plugs are difficult to reach.

Thanks in advance