Safely removing hardware (hard drive)

[rsherid]

I know XP made it a point to safely remove software via the taskbar so how does Leopard handle this? I have an exernal hard drive that I don't want to mess up upon disconnecting.

Also, is an external hard drive supposed to show up as a local disk?

 

[NumberSix]

An external hard drive should show up on your desktop

right click (or control+click) on the drive and select Eject "Name of your drive"

 

[skaheadpunk]

Or drag the icon on your desktop into the trash (which will turn to an eject button while you're dragging).

Dunno what you really mean about the local disk thing, it shows up the same way a CD, DVD or mounted disk image would...