G-Drive USB 4TB External

Hi, just bought a slightly older external drive to use as backup on my MacMini 2018 running BigSur. Initialized the drive with the Mac OS (Extended, Journaled) format. I plan on using this for TimeMachine but have not yet set that up.

I keep getting error messages that I have not “ejected” the G-Drive before disconnecting. In my Energy Saver preferences, I do NOT “put hard drives to sleep”; it’s unchecked. Don’t know what else to do.

It all SEEMS to be working fine, but this is driving me crazy.