/Volumes/external_drive folder not being removed

I have a 2TB external HDD, formatted using exFAT. It seems that, even after I eject the disk, the mount point remains in /Volumes. Thus, every time I plug the drive in, a new mount point gets created in /Volumes using a numerical incrementer:

• /Volumes/external_drive/


• /Volumes/external_drive 1/


• /Volumes/external_drive 2/


• etc.

This is a pain, as I have my torrents written to that disk. If I have to interrupt a torrent download and unplug the drive, when I plug the drive back in, the download folder ends up in a different place which causes problems for e.g., uTorrent. This can be avoided if I remember to go in and manually delete the orphaned mount point directory, but filesystem cleanup seems to be something that the OS handles. Is there a way to avoid this?

Note for clarity: I am ejecting the disk (e.g., right-click on the desktop icon and select "Eject external_drive"). I am NOT just yanking out the USB cable.