Safely Remove a USB Drive
From ATTWiki
It's a good idea to indicate to Windows that you want to remove a USB drive before pulling it out of the USB socket. Users that remove the devices without following the standard removal procedure discover later that the files or the drive has become corrupted.
In most cases it is best to click on the icon in the notification area (or system tray) that shows a small left green arrow.
Wait for the bubble to pop-up showing choices to devices to disable.
Choose the appropriate device with the mouse.
Then wait for another bubble to pop-up that reports it is safe to remove the drive.
