The drive may default to Safely Remove Hardware. To be sure, do the following:

. Start|Computer - you'll see your drives now

. Right click on the drive and select Properties

. Click the Hardware tab and select the drive and press Properties

. Hit the Policies tab.

. Finally you'll see the options available for this drive. The safest bet is to optimize for quick removal. That way, you won't have to open the Safely Remove Hardware on your taskbar. As far as performance, I've never measured but with USB, you're limited anyway. Stick with the safest option.

Rachael