I have an external hd that is connected by usb that has all of my music and a good chunk of pics that I don't want to lose. the problem is that the computer I have will do the sound like it sees the usb attached and it used to autoplay the drive but now it won't even show up on my computer I am hoping I can salvage it and get the data off and buy a new drive and transfer. Any advice would be great I will be in the chat room tonight if any of you gurus could help me through there

reboot computer with usb unattached, try different usb port. does it show up in device manager?

the computer will lock up if it is attached I forgot to mention that so it is unattached most of the time

ya, that is good to know

does the drive work on another computer?

next step is to seperate the hd from the usb device, maybe plug the hd directly into ide ribbon cable on the computer (for testing)

I guess I should say that the only computer I have now is a laptop that would be good to know

Can you plug that HDD into another desktop (friend'* maybe)? Use the IDE cable from the CD drive, if there isn't a spare available in the box.

does it matter the spped of the computer I got a buddy and her computer is SLoooooooow but I might be able to plug it in and see if it is gone or what the deal is I will see her on sunday so any help and advice before that so it will go smooth would be great and if you are willing I could pm whoever my # and they could walk me through it.

What OS is that machine running? If it'* XP, plugging it in, and having Windows recognize it is cake.

If you hear the ding sounds like the USB device is being detected by the computer but the drive does not show up under My Computer, then right click on My Computer, go to Manage. This brings up the Computer Management window. Under Storage, click on Disk management. The USB HD you plugged in should show up there. If it is there, right click on the drive letter it has selected for that device and select Change Drive letter and Path. From there you can select a different drive letter for that USB HD that you plugged in that is not in use already. Save and close these windows and go back into My Computer and the device will show up.