Cutting out the power would, I presume, erase the memory and require a reboot/update. As another example, whenever I disconnect a portable drive to add new music from my desktop, I power down first, detach, and then power up AFTER the updated drive is reattached. If I try this without powering down to standby, it will not recognize the reattached drive until I reboot the power.
as always, ymmv.
cutting power might erase ram, but wont necessarily require a full update of all drives attached.
i never disconnect drives for adding music, always do that over the network. (unless were talking full db transfers, or changing HDD's etc etc)
And, as for a special request of yours truly and many others, Chris added the separate folder update option a long time ago, so you won't have to update the full db for a single album
since the BDP is a computer essentially, your way of handling usb drives seems the only appropriate way indeed. Or you could eject them in the drives settings. I think
Anyways, careful handling is always time well spent.
Cheerio,
Marius