Windows 7: external hard drive wont show up

ok i have a western digital my passport external hard drive. its Mosley contains games and all of my music and a video. ive haven't even had it for a year and it is not showing up on my pc. i did what other forms that i looked at "going through the computer management and changing the later it doesn't work". but when i did it, it took like ten minutes to load up usually when it is in sleep mode. plus when it is loading i went into my pc and the window is not responding i tried to end it. so i unplugged the usb and everything worked again. it works on other pc's but mine. some of my friends said it could be a virus or a Trojan. i dont know what to do to fix this im thinking of getting a new hard drive but i want to make sure i can fix this before i spend $60-$70 on a new one.

i dont want any suggestions that will f&%!k up my pc.
so can anyone help me?

Is the drive shown in the BIOS?

Have you downloaded and run the drive manufacturer's disk utility to see if the drive has any issues?

Have you run any anti-virus or anti-malware utilities?

Run a virus scan with MBAM Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a free download that removes viruses and malware from your computer

the problem is that it does not respond half way through the scan.
i dont know what else to do i dont know if its my computer or is it my external hardrive hates my pc

Try this and make sure you download the correct version for your computer x86 or x64:

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta | Microsoft Connect

It allows a scan during in dos mode so it doesn't have to depend of the operating system to run..

try to run a integrity and error check on the drive, see if any errors show up, you can use a linux live cd, and i think also the windows installation cd.

seth500's idea is also a good alternative, but dos can be quite confusing if you dont have the experience

also, nobody here WANTS to screw up your pc, we just give ideas,
however, you should be smart and keep backups of everything just in case