[Flip500]

i have an external HDD and it was working and then i lent it out to a friend and it didn't work when he tried to use it. It's a 40 GB external and i'm using Firewire to connect it. I'm more interested in whether its broken rather than if my friend broke it (he says he didn't drop it or anything). When i plug it in the light comes on... then flash a few times and i can hear noises of it working... and then the light goes back to being constantly on, pretty sure thats the way it worked before, but my nor his computer can even pick the HDD up. So the HDD can sense it's plugged into the computer but the computer can't sense that it's plugged in, much less even show up on my desktop or give me a warning for anything. Can anybody help? Any suggestions on what i should do to try to get it working? Thanks.

[Cold Warrior]

How long have you left it plugged in to your Mac? I had to leave a USB 2.0 drive in for 5 minutes a couple days ago before it mounted. When it finally did, all subsequent mounts have been quick.

[Flip500]

hmmm sounds like that could be it.... i'm trying it right now... 10:14 PM... 10:20 and still nothing. I guess i'll unplug it and then reconnect and let it sit until morning to see if it pulls through.

[Flip500]

I left it over-night and still nothing, but the light was on all night. Could resetting the Power Management System help at all? That seemed to be the generic cure for everything that Apple has given me in the past.

[amazing]

What does Disk Utility say when you click the Info button? Can be verified, can be repaired, etc?

If you don't need the data on the drive, can you reformat it?

And, it might not be the drive, it might be the case, for example I've found that Maxtor cases are prone to failing (2 out of 3.) The only way to test that is to put the drive in another case.

[Flip500]

hmmm i think the case idea is the most logically (and hope provoking), i can't use disc utility to look to see if anything is wrong because the HDD isn't even showing up on Disc Utility.