This problem used to happen in Vista and just started popping up in my Windows 7 32 bit 7100.0.090421-1700. The drive is a 100gb Maxtor external usb drive. I've tried unplugging it and replugging it. Also I just rebooted with no luck. I'm going to boot to my 64 bit version to see if this problem occurs there.
Well, I booted to my 64 bit Windows 7 and the same problem occured. It didn't see the external usb hard drive. I restarted and booted to Vista and the it saw the drive. I rebooted back into Windows 7 32 bit and it recognized the drive......................very strange.
That is a bit wierd. Could've have been some sort of initializing issue with the HDD. You could perhaps try formatting it in Windows 7 to (hopefully) prevent these sort of issues happening in the future.
Quote