Hello, I backup my computer every week. I have Maxtor one touch external hard disk with Retrospect software for this purpose.The OS on my computer is Windows XP Professional. The external hard disk is connected to the computer using a USB cable. Last time after finishing backup, I wagely remember that I probably pulled out the USB cable before the "Its now safe to remove hardware" message was displayed. Today when I connected the external hard disk, it is getting recognized as a hard disk along with C drive instead of being recognised as a removable device. ie. If I open My Computer folder, the maxtor hard drive is recognised under HARD DISK DRIVES instead of DEVICES WITH REMOVABLE STORAGE. Even the "Safely remove Hardware" icon doesn't appear in the system tray when I connect the Maxtor hard drive. How do I solve this problem? Please help.

There is no reason you cant just use it as a hard drive. But anyway, unplug your Hard drive. Right-click 'my computer' & select 'manage' go to removeable storage and see if there are any entries for your drive. If so remove them and try again. This may work but no promises! Wizard ICT. Microsoft Certified Professional

Hello, Thanks for the reply. I can't use the external hard disk as a regular hard disk because, I would like to backup my entire "My computer" folder on to this external disk. And the external hard disk appears under the C drive. So if I try backingup C drive then even the contents to the external hard disk would be backed up. I didn't find any entries for the external hard drive in the removable storage under computer management. Any other suggestions? Please help me. Thanks

You have the hard disk policy set wrong. You can set an external HD for high performance or for quick removal. Go to device manager and your HD will be there, under policies click FOR QUICK REMOVAL. You disk cache will be disabled so it will work a little slower, but you will be able to unplug any time without damage.