After I have downloaded my photos from my camera's SD card, I go to MY COMPUTER and it does not show a particular removerable disk letter my photos are stored on. I have to click on each letter before I find where they are stored.
Before I take out my card from the slot I use the safely remove hardware icon on the bottom menu, and remove my card.
The trouble is that when I go back into MY COMPUTER all the lettered drive icons for my card reader have disappeared and I cannot get them back until I have shut down my computer and re-started it.
Could anyone please explain why this is so, and is it necessary to use the safely remove hardware facility?
Don't use the safely remove hardware for devices you aren't actually plugging (the USB cable, I mean). Use it for flash drives and other things, but not your multicard reader.
Instead, go and find the drive that you've been using in My Computer, right-click, and choose Eject from the menu. Wait a second then pull your card out.