Maxtor Onetouch 3 not detected

G,day to you all,
Just wondering if anyone else out there has ever had a drama with XP Home suddenly ,without rhyme or reason ,not detecting their Maxtor external drive.Mine was going fine ,then the other day I went to use it (it doesnt get used often)and bugger me if it didnt just sit there with its light on doing J.S.XP appeared to completely ignore it!Any thoughts on the subject?
Regards ,
ausman2.:confused

 

what steps have you taken so far? have you removed it (ie - add/remove hardware), by clock. have you unplugged the usb cable, and/or power cable? of course don't unplug any cables while it's writing or reading data to the h/d. have you tried a different usb port? have you tried it on another comp to see if it still works? do you leave it on all the time? - sos

 

This is a good question. If it works on a different PC, then we know the drive is OK and your PC is the problem. If it doesn't work on a different PC, then we know your PC is OK, and the drive is the problem. In the meantime, I would unplug the drive from the PC and turn off the power to it if it uses its own power source. Then reboot the PC with the drive NOT connected. Let XP load up normally. Now turn on the Maxtor (if applicable) and wait for maybe 20 seconds to allow it so spin up and do its thing. Then plug it into a different USB port and be sure your speakers are on, with adequate volume, so you can hear the "glonk" sound when XP recognizes a USB device....

 

Thanks dlb and sosaman,the use of a different usb port did the trick.It still leaves me wondering why it did it at all.I guess its one of those computer type mysteries,the damn things have a mind of their own!!Anyway the upshot is it works now so alls good!!
thanks again,
ausman2