external hard drive vanished

[alan-r]

the f..k is wrong with my western digital external hard drive, its the second time this has happened,its shows up in devices it shows up in safely remove hardware ,it shows up in partition manager but its not showing in my computer again.the last time this happened (and restore doesn't bring it back either)i had to go into partition manager and format the bloody thing then it showed up, luckily i had most of what was important backed up on disc so could reinstall it back on. if this is unreliable i might as well do it in with a big hammer
any advice?

[BilleeSugger]

I googled 'drive not showing in my computer' . Lots of links .

Not being funny but it's often easier & quicker to search before you post

[alan-r]

thanks i did that
(i'm no comp novice)
nothing i found helped

[johnpol78]

when you connect the external hard drive . it will shop up the pop up after connecting the hard drive .

when you remove the external hard drive from the computer click on safely remove hardware from the computer so that it will not create any problem while plugged in again.
if the hard drive is not shown check the usb drivers , may be usb drivers are not installed , you can update the usb driver which have yellow exclamation sign.

after updating the driver it will detect automatically.

[Lew]

unplug it and plug it in a different usb socket.

[alan-r]

done all that guys. nothing works all usb sockets checked and ok .
the drive was working ok then its not.
turned off comp with the hard drive in. turned comp on with the hard dive out
turned off and plugged hard drive in different usb
turn comp back on - nothing, but it,s showing every where else
it does not pop up
as i said earlier i'm not a comp novice
i will just have to go in partition magic as it showing in there and format it again loosing what i have on the drive but at least it shows up after that,