Intersting Jean, because that's the kind of flash drive I am using, (a Cruzer one). I haven't used another kind yet, so will have to experiment. Yes, it is an interesting comparison to other appliances I have around the house. Like a coffee maker for example, that has a green light for on. It is OK to unplug it while the green light is on, but it still means the device is "on" which to me says the program that supposedly disengages the flash drive doesn't work. It would be like having the "Off" button broken on your TV. Yes, if you wanted to turn off the TV you could uplug it and then plug it in when you wanted to turn it on, same with a lamp or something. Like I said, I'm not worried per se, just curious as to what is going on inside the computer.

Thanks everyone. I too would like to know why someone said not to use the camera's transfer ability; my camera came with a utility program & cable specifically for transferring photos. It has worked fine, knock on wood. As for the cards, I bought the same cards I always buy, but maybe they are making them differently now? not sure. Or maybe my card reader is malfunctioning. not sure. So I'll just keep transferring via EOS Utility for now. (which does not use up the battery that much, BTW--the transfer is fairly fast and the camera shuts itself off after it's done, if I have to let it go awhile/walk away from it)

Ravencajun, I have a question for you. I have my removable disk in and it won't let me safely remove it. The device generic volume cannot be stopped right now keeps coming up. I have my pictures on there and don't want to lose them. I use Ulead Photo Explorer to view them, I have been deleting extra copys on there. I did go to Task Manager and clicked applications and two things were running in there. 1.)Safely remove hardware icon gone in XP C 2.)Ulead Photo Explorer 8.0 F:\ Running. If I stop them will I lose my pictures? Please, could you give me advice on this problem. Thank you.

bpgreen is correct it can cause total corruption of data or damage on the device as well as the pc, especially memory cards since they are more fragile. I would have Dell repair it if it is new, that is a faulty item, have you told them about this? Even though USB devices are Plug & PlayÂthat is, they're ready to go upon being plugged inÂyou shouldn't just unplug them. A USB port has current running through it, so the power jolt caused by unplugging a "hot" connection can corrupt data on a storage device, camera, or mp3 player. "The purpose of "Safely Remove Hardware" is simple: it's how you tell Windows that you're about to remove a device so that Windows can finish whatever it needs to do with it. In the case of disks, for example, Windows flushes all disk buffers, avoiding things like potential corruption. And that's the fear - if you remove something like a USB thumb drive without first telling Windows, it's possible to corrupt the contents of the drive. In practice that doesn't happen often, but it's possible." Safely Remove Hardware You just never know when it will happen, I have definitely seen it happen and it is not pretty, which is why I stress it so much. For things like Ipods it can make it no longer operable. So if it were my pc I would find out why it is not functioning properly. Here is how to create a desktop shortcut link for it you might try that and see if it works any better. Create a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut there is some very good info here for options on how to fix or work around the issues. How to solve Windows' inability to safely remove hardware? there is a little program you can purchase that is supposed to make it a simple one click solution, but I do not know anything about it. I guess you could try the 30 trial period and see if it works. USB Safely Remove So I would do as bpgreen does and shut down before removing it if I was not able to get the remove safely to operate.