First, I have two computers up and running 24/7, unless M$ requires a RESTART. One is mine, the other is the wife's. Both are running Win. 10. Hers has a 1 TB HD an mine has a 2TB HD. I have a 4 TB connected to mine for back-up purposes and a 2TB I use for TRANSFERRING files back and forth. If it MATTERS at all, these are mostly music files I transfer like, monthly. The 2TB is a Western Digital "My Passport" drive.
Now my issue ... Some times, when I go to remove the drive, using the "Safely remove Hardware" icon in the taskbar, a message come up stating, the drive is still in use, to close any files or folders still in use. I have tried several different procedures to close all folders before removing the drive. I still get the same notice from time to time. I went right to the source and contacted Western Digital and got forwarded to an article concerning this. The article stated to go into the drives properties and uncheck "ALLOW files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties". Is this a safe alternative to shutting down to remove the drive? What exactly, in layman terms is turning off indexing going to do to the contents of the drive?Turn off indexing.