Windows 7: I keep losing my external drives

Hi people

Had Windows 7 for alittle while now and i'm not sure if its 7 or the computer but if we try a transfer a file lets say an avi file from the compter to an external harddrive or a usb stick it will be ok for a while and then it stops the transfer and hangs at a certain point. At this time if look at the drive in my computer the drive shows up but shows that there isn't anything in the drive everything dissappears and the only way to get it back is to restart the computer.
Hope you can help cause its driving me nuts..

Thanks

Welcome!

Try using Teracopy to transfer the file. Then we can diagnose the problem better.

fine it looks like the driver is not responding after some time so what you can do is ...
strt - strt search feild type [dev] and select device manager - and select universal serial bus controllers - click on + symbol bside usb and select usb root hub and rt click on the usb root hub and select properties - and select power management - and their would be a check mark bside allow the computer to turn off this device , so what you need to do is uncheck the check mark and click on ok - and restart the computer ....

now the external hard drive wouldnt stop responding after some time and it will work continuosly ....

Both suggestions haven't worked, all drivers seem to be uptodate

Make sure you have the latest BIOS.

you may try getting yourself a powered USB buss adapter sometimes if you are using several USB devices the motherboard is not able to supply enough power for stable USB operation and can actually cause system to crash by using a power USB buss it' gets it's power from the AC adapter powering the buss

you may also want to try reformatting your USB drives NTFS when FAT is used they can be flakey

I'll try the latest bios, but where do i get that from???
And i can't believe that using a usb memory stick would cause the drives to dissappear, especially when they were working fine and the computer is 3 months old...

What machine do you have? Did you build it yourself, or buy it?

If you bought it, look on the OEM's site, like dell.com or hp.com. Then go to the downloads section and select your machine.

If you built it, go to the motherboard's manufacturer's site, and look there.

I have a Packard Bell IMEDIA A4521 UK and i can't find the bios download, thanks for all your help so far. It's really getting to me as i can't get it sorted out and in the end i'll put a hammer through it. The annoying thing is its only a few months old.
Help me again please people..
Thanks

I can't seem to find your motherboard. Try downloading Speccy, and post your motherboard.