USB drive not showing up

Is it OK to ask about this here? It is the drive that I use for images.:)

I have a Maxtor external USB2 drive, and lately sometimes it isn't recognized by the computer. It is listed in the taskbar in Windows XP, where you click to remove it before shutting it off. But it doesn't show up under "my computer" or in Photoshop. I've restarted the computer with it on, and sometimes that works but it didn't just a minute ago. Any ideas what's going on?

When mine was playing up, I found I hadn't plugged in the USB cable properly in the drive.
It was enough to make the device sort of appear in the taskbar, but not enough to read anything off it - bizarre!

A friend at work has a dead fuistu pocket drive, both the red and green lights come on at the same time and it's not recognised in the taskbar.
That seems to be a faulty drive, as it doesn't spin up at all. Whether it's controller or drive we don't know as it's going back under warranty we don't care :)

As yours is intermittent, I'd look for cabling problems first.

I would agree that the connection isn't seated properly or cable to check first, before thinking about the drive as the problem.

Steve, did you download the latest drivers for your Maxtor?

You can find most any driver here http://www.driversguide.com/

Don't want to create a login membership? PM me.

Just unplugged it (seemed like it was in though) and plugged it back in on both ends and it shows up now. You guys are great! Thanks!