Allen, You've gotten a couple of high-tech answers...let me try a lower-tech approach. And pardon me if you've already considered the following... I've experienced the same problem on several distros -- Mandrake, Red Hat, and SuSE 9.0. In my case, it happens because: a. I'm transferring large files or large numbers of files and the directory from which I'm transferring shows empty, while they appear in on the outboard drive. So I try to unmount, forgetting that the files may not have fully crossed to the outboard drive yet. or b. I have a minimized terminal window, file manager, or app that is set to the drive I'm trying to unmount, and I've either momentarily forgotten to shut the program down or >cd .. back up to a higher level directory. Thus, when I get those kinds of unmount messages, those are the first two things I check. Best, Pete -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter N. Spotts Science and technology correspondent | The Christian Science Monitor One Norway Street, Boston MA 02115 Office: 617-450-2449 | Office in Home: 508-520-3139 pspotts@alum.mit.edu | www.csmonitor.com | www.peterspotts.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~