When I click the "Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area, the device I am trying to remove does not appear. I'm running Vista Ultimate. Is there anything that I can do to solve this?

According to Microsoft the problem occurs when either of the two scenarios apply:

* The USB device contains an embedded USB hub.
* The embedded USB hub detects a device that is connected to the USB hub as being a non-removable device.

The work-a-round for this issue is to shut your system down before you remove the USB device.