External hard drive not showing up when turned on?(reboot required)

Hi

I have been having this problem for about a year now, I usually turn my external HD off (built my own with a WD hard drive and antec external case)

It will not show up after turning it on unless i reboot windows, I have gone into device manager and searched for new hardware but rarely that ever works.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Thanks!

bump

Not sure if it will help, but............
Make sure that you have all the important USB items enabled in the BIOS.
Don't disable USB 1.0.

Sounds like the system is getting no interrupt from the disk. That is most likely a "mechanical" problem. Either the disk does not connect correctly in the enclosure or there is a problem with the USB cable.

Next time it does not connect, shake everything (enclosure and cable) and see what happens.

Hi Shockwave

Also check all the ports the cables push in to for dust / obstructions, and the cable plug ends. If you have any other cables also try swapping them.