I have just purchased a Maxtor External USB Hard Drive for my HP laptop running Windows XP SP2. In the beginning I was able to use the “Safely Remove…” feature a couple of times. As I filled up the drive, that feature repeatedly comes back with the error that the device cannot be stopped. Even when leaving the computer unattended for long periods of time, and disabling Norton Antivirus and other USB devices (as per Maxtor’s KB), I am still unable to safely stop the drive. Is it safe to shut down the computer and then unplug the drive?
