How can i "Safely Remove" My Passport Ultra from my PC?

I can't EVER "Safely Remove" my My Passport Ultra drive from my PC!
The computer's an HP notebook (if that matters), and it's running Vista (64bit).
I can't believe that there's NO way to eject / unmount / "Safely Remove" the drive from my computer when i need to disconnect it from the port!
But i can't find any way to do it, other than shutting down the system entirely. Obviously, shutting down every time i want to unplug the drive is so RIDICULOUSLY impractical, i can't even consider it as an option.
The "Knowledge Base" pages don't seem particularly knowledgeable on the subject.
The only suggestions offereed there are to close any applications that are acccessing thedrive, including the Windows indexer and any virus/spyware programs that might be running.
Obviously I've already done that. I've set the drive to never be idexed or scanned/monitored for viruses and spyware.
And yet still, every time i try to eject the drive, it's the same message:
"Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device"
"Windows can't stop your 'Generic volume' device because it is in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again later."
Sometimes, even after i manually end the WD software via the Windows services menu, they just start back up again a few seconds later (even though i set them in the services menu to only be launched manually).
But the rest of the time, even when none of the WD software is running, Windows still tells me the drive is in use and won't let me eject it.
There's GOTTA be a way around this.
I've never had this problem with any OTHER external drive.
I'm still waiting for a reply to the Support Case i submited yesterday, but i'm getting impatient.
Does anybody else know any solutions to this problem? I can't be the only one stumped by it...

Update:
I think I finally solved the problem (no thanks to WD...).
I had already excluded the My Passport Drive from being indexed by the Windows Indexer.
And from being scanned or protected by antivirus software.
And from being monitored by Windows Defender.
What i didn't realize is that the WD Smartware software and the other WD applications were running automatically at startup, whether or not the drive was connected.
And so even if i closed them manually, they relaunched automatically in the background again.
Finally, i used a third-party program to remove all the WD applications and services from the startup and autorun lists on my computer.
This seems to be working so far.
I've been able to connect the drive, manually run the WD Smartware application, perform a backup, and close WD Smartware again. And then Windows allows me to "Safely Remove" (eject) the drive without any problems. I've gotta say that it makes no sense for WD's software to be ser up to run automatically, but that's the way it was set up by default when i installed it. Maybe it would make sense if WD expected its users to leave it connected and running all the time, but this is a PORTABLE drive. Leave it connected and constantly running in the background would defeat the purpose of being "portable" entirely, wouldn't it?

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