Here's the first:

• Right-click the thumb drive icon in the taskbar/system tray.
• The "Safely remove USB mass storage device" dialog bar will appear. Click that to stop the device.
• A Safe to remove hardware message now appears. It is now safe to remove your drive.

You can see this demonstrated in Figure A.

FIGURE A

Here's one way to remove your drive. Click picture for a larger image.

Alternately you can:

• Open My Computer.
• Right-click the correct drive for the device and select Eject (or click Eject from the Windows pane).
• It is now safe to remove your thumb drive.

This is demonstrated in Figure B.

FIGURE B

Simply eject your drive

If you're using a later version of Windows, try this:

• Right click the thumb drive icon on your taskbar.
• Right above that, a "safely remove hardware" message appears.
• In the dialog box that appears, click stop.
• Then click OK in the second dialog box.
• You'll see a "safe to remove" hardware message.

You can see this demonstrated in Figure C.

FIGURE C

Safely remove your drive.

Remove the thumb drive once you see the "Safe to remove hardware" message, as shown in Figure D.

FIGURE D

It's safe to remove your hardware.

How to travel safely with your thumb drive
Due to security measures everyone and their luggage now have to pass through X-ray machines of some sort.

Although there have been no reported cases (at least from my research) of damage to thumb drives due to radiation, it is still a good idea to carry thumb drives in carry-on bags since the radiation level is much less than it is for luggage.

Inserting thumb drive into USB connectors
Remember that the thumb drive can only be inserted in one direction; if you are having difficulty inserting, stop and try the opposite direction. Trying to force the connector into the USB port ends up damaging both the connector and the port.

Installing antivirus and anti-spyware software on your thumb drive is also a good idea. You may need to use your thumb drive from PC to PC and you cannot guarantee the level of protection that exists on another person's PC. Your best bet for protection is to protect yourself, in this case, your thumb drive.

Yes, it is possible to protect your thumb drive and we will cover that in another article. If you're curious, for now, be sure to take a look at ClamWin Portable, an antivirus program that runs right off your thumb drive.

Also, when reinserting your thumb drive in your own PC, be sure to run a virus check on it before using anything from the drive.

U3, the good, the bad, the removal
Serious computer users may also know that a companion to the thumb drive is the U3 smart drive, the portable software drive. U3 lets you run software straight off your drive.

Like the regular thumb drive the U3 is great for data storage as well. It is also possible to remove U3 components from a U3 drive and Voila!, you have a plain thumb drive -- although why anyone would want to do this is beyond me. [Many of us find the loading and unloading of the U3 data to be annoying when simply storing information is good enough. -- Ed.]