I have 2 USB drives connected to an XP machine that I rotate twice a month for backups. On my CentOS box, I have that drive mounted at /home/backup using cifs.

Because the drive is mounted on the Linux box, Windows XP complains when I try to "Safely Remove Hardware". As a result, I have to "umount /home/backup", then "Safely Remove Hardware". After connecting the new drive, I then have to "mount /home/backup" in order to use it again on the Linux box.

Now, this question may be a Windows XP question, but I was wondering if there is anything I can do on the Linux box first. Is there anything that can be done on either end, so that I won't have to "umount /home/backup" first?

Thanks in advance.

I think no matter what you are doing the correct thing right now. I'd worry that any other way may cause issues.

If you are using a script to backup files add steps to mount before and unmount upon completion. If for some reason there is unsaved data or open files you could corrupt the file system on the other drive when it is swapped and you ignore the warning.