Removing Hotplugged USB drive
 

I have a server I am setting up using Suse Linux 9.1.

Learning as I go I have the system up and running except for one thing that I can't quite figure out.

I want to be able to connect a removable USB drive to the system for backups. That is to say I have a USB enclosure with removable hard drives that I can swap in and out of the USB box. This is so I can archive and back up to several different drives for offsite storage. I have managed to get the removable drives formatted and they at least hotplug connect to some extent when I turn the USB off and then on. The problem is that it isn't a nice clean process. inserting a drive and turning it on usually adds it to the device list and I can find it but turning the device off doesn't remove it.

I can't seem to find the right information on how to remove the devices from the available list of devices. Right now my device list has sd1 to sd11 even though I only have one reiser USB drive attached and I can't be sure without clicking each device which one is the actual one that is attached.

What is the proper way to turn off a USB device and remove it from being recognized? I would prefer to not have to shut down each time I want to clean out my device list. What file lists the devices if I have to remove them manually or with a script? I can't seem to find what I need in the hotplug directions.

Thanks for any help.

Have you tried unmounting it?