'My Computer' device behaviour

I have a Zen Nano which gets recognized & appears in 'My Computer' w/o any problems. However, when it comes time to detach it, I get the error that only root can umount the device, as well as the fact that it does not appear in fstab or mtab. I am hesitant to just unplug the device w/o 'safely removing' it but that is what gives me the error. This problem also applies to my PCMCIA flash disk. What does one do? Is it okay to just unplug it, now (in SuSE 10 vs previous versions)...? Thanks! -- ...Yogich