It isn't Vegas. Blame Microsoft. I too constantly see this problem off and on, regardless or not if I have any SoFo product running or even installed. I've seen it on Windows 98SE and also on XP, so not surprised you see it on W2K. This is one of the "friendly" features that's really a "bug" in Windows. The issue is how Windows handles firewire devices. Something as simple as just having Windows Explorer active and you last accessing a directory that's on a firewire drive will generate the message you see. Sometimes. That's the frustrating thing.

Of course you know you're playing Russian roulette if you shut down while you actually have any files open on your firewire drive. That may result in a corrupt file. So make sure you don't, actually have any open on the firewire. Next, before shutting down, close down all other applications you may have running manually...especially Windows Explorer.

Now before we go further, you DO see that 'safely remove hardware' icon on your Task Bar (green left pointing arrow with little drive underneath), if so click, it should bring up a menu listing all the devices you have on the firewire. Click again and it should shut down the devvice normally. At least that's what is suppose to happen. It don't always at least not until the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, even 5th time. Sooner or later will will work, usually. If not then you really have no choice but to shutdown. Just be sure no files are open.

Oh... if you don't see that Safely remove icon on your task bar, there's a system file missing, you need to download. Should only be necessary if you have an older version of Windows and haven't upgraded. I did need to, way back when I first got a firewire over a year ago, so you may need to download the missing file. Sorry, can't help you with the file name, not on this system. If you call the drive maker, I'm sure they know about this issue. For what it is worth, actually a fairly common problem.