I use a pcmcia adaptor on my laptop in order to plug in USB2.0 devices. Suppose I removed my thumbdrive named "Sandisk" and insert another thumbdrive named "PNY", the name on "My Computer" would still show "Sandisk" the name of the previous removable device and not show the name of the current device. My thinkpad with W2K pro used to show the name of the current drive, but only lately it sticks to the previous name. Can anyone help me understand this? Thanks.

Do you always unplug safely by using the Close feature at the bottom right of the Task Bar?This icon should appear when you plug the device.Good luck.

yep sounds like an improper removal and attachment.

To clarify what the above replies are saying, you should have an icon for the drive next to your clock in the system tray. Expand that icon and choose to remove the device. Then you can insert a different device. With storage devices you should always remove them in that manner. Even when shutting down. If you want to leave the device plugged in, that is OK, but remove it. You risk losing or corrupting data if you don't.

Thanks for your prompt replies. Yes, I got permission from the Eject Hardware box when removing the thumbdrive but, despite that, the name of the previous thumbdrive still sticks on "My Computer". However, OtherHill raised an interesting point and if I understand him correctly, if I remove the thumbdrive AFTER the lappy is already shut down, will the removal corrupt the data. Can you confirm if my understanding is correct?

Once the message appears that it is safe to remove the device, you may remove it then or leave in place and shutdown. After the laptop is off you may remove the drive. Although USB is supposed to be hotswap, I have had similar experiences to yours. I think this is the reason there are as many as 10 USB ports on newer MBoards. If you can, use a different port for different drives. The reason shutting down without properly removing the drive can result in lost data is because the data may not be fully written to the drive before powering down. Many folks just yank them out, but you do chance losing data then. Once there is no power to the device the data should be frozen.

Thanks for the clarification.