Can't access external hard drive

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

I'm running Vista and suddenly can't access one of my two external hard drives, getting the following message when I try to perform any of the commands under "Properties." on the desktop icon.

The drive or Network connection that the shortcut "FreeAgent Shortcut.ink refers to is unavailable. Make sure the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, then try again.

I've tried disconnecting, rebooting, and then reconnecting. But it doesn't work. The desktop icon is still there, but the one on "Computer" is gone. Is everything lost?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Have you tried a different computer? Alternatively, could you try hooking the hard drives directly to the motherboard?

[TempestSong]

Right click "Computer" and hit "Manage". In Computer Management, navigate to the "Disk Management" entry and check to see if it exists there in the bottom section and/or has a drive letter.

If it's there but has no letter, then one of two things can happen: You can right-click its entry on the bottom and see almost nothing, in which case it may be something more serious, or you can right-click and see a menu.

If you see the menu, go to "Change Drive Letter and Paths" and assign it a letter.

[General Zod]

Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. (I can't quite remember the paths in Vista, but it should be similar).

From here scroll down to the USB controllers and right-click, uninstall the suspect devices. This should force them to restart and might clear up the service. Failing that test the drives on other machines.

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

Have you tried a different computer? Alternatively, could you try hooking the hard drives directly to the motherboard?

No reaction when connected to my laptop. I don't trust my skills enough to open the computer, sorry.

[Edi]

Does it have an external power source or does it draw everything from USB? If the latter, it's probably not getting enough juice out of the USB port and you need to use one of those forked USB cables to connect it to several ports simultaneously. It will draw more power, which might fix the problem.

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

Right click "Computer" and hit "Manage". In Computer Management, navigate to the "Disk Management" entry and check to see if it exists there in the bottom section and/or has a drive letter.

If it's there but has no letter, then one of two things can happen: You can right-click its entry on the bottom and see almost nothing, in which case it may be something more serious, or you can right-click and see a menu.

If you see the menu, go to "Change Drive Letter and Paths" and assign it a letter.

It's not there, either in the top list or bottom list.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

My suggestion is to ask someone to help you open the entire thing, and hook it straight to a computer to see if the computer can read it. There is a chance that the drives are okay, but not the interface.