I've been having this problem for a while now (currently with Windows 7 RTM: earlier with Vista and, possibly, with XP -- all of this across multiple motherboards, drive chipsets, and drives). Even with AHCI turned on in the BIOS, the turning on of an ESATA drive in an external enclosure results in unpredictable behavior of the Remove Hardware Safely icon. Sometimes the drive will be recognized by Windows and show up there. Other times, it will be recognized by Windows but not show up there. Still other times, it's not recognized anywhere. Usually, I work around this by opening Device Manager and telling it to Scan for Hardware Changes. That will usually pick it up. But, since that's a bit annoying, it would be nice if that Remove Hardware Safely icon had an option to do the same Scan for Hardware Changes (so I don't have to dig around for it).More in the vein of griping, I'd like to say that this inconsistent behavior is irritating. It's been going on for years, now. Right now, on the two systems I'm testing Windows7 RTM on (a Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3P and an Intel DP45SG, both with ICH10R), I have entirely different results. The UD3P shows my primary C: drive and my DVD drive as Removable. But, half the time, Windows, itself, won't notice when I turn on an ESATA (let alone Remove Hardware Safely). The DP45SG doesn't show the C: drive or the DVD drive as Removable (thankfully), and, usually, when I turn on an ESATA drive, Windows will notice it. But, usually, that drive doesn't get added to Remove Hardware Safely. Now, the usual response I see to this is that it's a problem with the motherboard or the chipset or the drivers or even the drive. Yet, this is Gigabyte and Intel and Western Digital and fully updated drivers. It's not some podunk company's products. What's even more interesting is that the program "HotSwap!" (by KaaKoon at:http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm)seems to work fine (i.e., it doesn't list silly things like the C: or DVD drives as removable and if the drive doesn't get recognized when turned on, it has that Scan for Hardware Changes option). The problem with that program is that it's unsigned. So, I can't get it to start up automatically upon booting. It just seem that if some little, free program can properly handle the Remove Hardware Safely function, why can't Windows 7?