how to know if its save to remove an external drive

[Stefan Kittel]

Hi...

how can I know if its safe to remove an external harddisk (firewire).
under 98 sometimes I get an bluesscreen "can't write to drive" under 2k many messages appear "data writte to drive ist lost".

can I tell windows to remove the drive
or
how do i know its safe to remove it

thanks

Stefan Kittel