My external HD no longer shows in 'my computer' although it does apperar in 'device manager' but I can't access it.. It was fine last week

Don't suppose anyone has any ideas?

Cheers in advance..

Hey there, can I ask what version of windows you're running?

I'll just assume 2k/XP for now, can you try logging on as an administrator (if you're not already) and going to control pannel > administrative tools > computer management > disk management and see if it shows in there?

Yeah using XP, I looked in disk management and it say lots of bad things like; unrecognised, not initialised... Does this mean all the data is gone?

You could try right clicking and initiaialize disk but I suspect it's something to do with the drive.

Sounds like it's having problems reading the disk but recognising the enclosure, just a thought but are you cofident enough to open the hard drive case (while it's unplugged) and make sure it's attached properly and plugged in as the fact it happened suddenly leads me to believe something is loose somewhere.

are we talking the external enclosure, or the actual HD unit? I have checked it in another external enclosure and still no response. Thanks for your help fella....

I meant the enclosure, not the actual HD :-)

Is it possible you could try a different drive in your enclosure, just to rule out software problems and confirm the drive being dead?