If you use a removable USB drive, USB hard drive, iPod, digital camera, or other portable USB device, you should never remove the drive by just pulling out the USB cable. Although most of the time there are no ill effects, there are certain times when doing this can result in the corruption of the data on the device. Without any visible indication, the operating system may be reading from the device or using it in some way. If you physically remove the device at this time, the data can be corrupted. 

Your pictures, files, and other data are important. So don’t take a chance of ruining them.

The correct way to detach a removable device is to make sure that your computer is not using that device before you remove it. You do this by clicking on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the System Tray at the bottom right of the screen. You may have to click on the small arrow to make this icon visible. 

The  Safely Remove Hardware Icon  looks like this:

When you double-click that icon, you get a list of removable hardware. Click on the one you want to remove and if it is safe to remove the hardware, a popup message will confirm that by with the message: “Safe to Remove Hardware.” 

Unfortunately, Windows can get pretty confusing here. If you have multiple devices connected, Windows doesn’t specify which one is which. Sometimes it gives you only a chance to stop what it calls a “USB Mass Storage Device”. If that is the case, you must click that before you will find the drive that you need to choose. 

In vista you can also go to my computer, select the usb drive, and either hit the eject button in the right-click menu or eject in that menu above the drives. 

There is an easier way, check out my suggestion of a free program that will make removing USB hardware easier.