The instructions that came with my NexStar external SATA dock said to always use the "Safely Remove Hardware" utility before removing or powering off the external drive. I always wondered if that was really necessary? It seems to be a moot point now, because with the new driver installed that utility is no longer available in my system tray. Should that concern me?
(I don't know if this is in the same place on Vista.)
Bring up your device manager and find the hard drive. Open its properties and go to the "Policies" tab. There should be options there to select between "quick removal" and "performance". If you have it set for performance, you should see the "Safely Remove Hardware" button. If you have it set for "quick removal", you should be able to unplug it without doing anything first.
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