AutoPlay: External USB Drive

I have 2 quick questions for you guys that I am sure you more than likely know the answer to........

1. Every time I plug my External USB Hard Drive up this AutoPlay Window Pops ups and
starts scanning through all my files. I've went into My Computer and chose properties and
under the AutoPlay Tab I selected "Mixed" ( Do Nothing ). The thing is, it keeps doing it. It
seems that once scanned it won't do it again unless I reboot. I'm thinking it has something
to do with File Indexing but that's just a guess. I took a look in properties and the " Allow
file indexing service to index this disk for fast file search" is checked..... Could that be the
issue, I want it to stopped do that because it takes forever.

2. On this External USB Drive, I edited the permissions a bit and would like to know if this
will affect the contents on the drive if I should format my XP pro and reinstall. Here is what
it looks like, I set it up so my Limited User Account can't write to it and the Admin can. I did
this so I could log into Admin and BackUp.

Administrator: has Full Control
Everyone: ( No boxes are checked )
Users (Orbital\Users): Read/Write, List Folder, Read.

 

1. This is normal. You can disable autoplay pretty simply and TweakUI will do that also.
Disable autoplay, or; When it brings up a window close it.

2. Typically using the Backup Users group instead of users or admin is better suited for backing up files. Think about this. You may need the backup'er to be able to backup admin only files no? This group is better suited for these types of scenario's. Otherwise your permissions are fine, they will remain after a reinstall unless you reformat this particular disk.