I have an 80GB external HD that I use for just about everything.  Well, yesterday at work, it was fine.  I go home, and plug it in to my COMPUTER and it says "installing new USB device" and "your device is now installed properly and ready to use" but its not showing up on "My Computer" and I cant get to the dataDoes it appear in DISK MANAGEMENT?No, I have tried to get to it from CMD as well.  Still nothing 

It lets me "safely remove" it though.  Odd."Safely Remove" would list a drive letter. Does that drive letter appear in Disk Managment (diskmgmt.msc)?It actually doesn't list as a letter when I try to safely remove it.  It just shows as a "USB device"

While this may sound simplistic please don't be offended - these are the most common causes of the problem you describe:

1) It IS plugged in to AC power, correct (assuming the driver requires external power)?
2) You did try multiple USB ports on your computer, yes?
3) And I assume you've rebooted the system.

If yes to all above, try a clean boot (msconfig - startup tab - disable all startup items & reboot)

Last, you should try the drive on another system. Just because it worked yesterday doesn't mean it will work today. Drives do die at some point.no offense taken. 

1. Doesnt require external power other than a USB
2. I have tried multiple ports on 3 different computers...all the same results
3. I have rebooted and restored to yesterday.


I will try the clean boot and see what happensWell, if you've tried three different computers it sounds like the drive may have passed on.   Anyway to get the data off of it?  Not my area of expertise. Sit tight, I've asked patio to respond when he has time.Thanks manYepWhen it comes to saving data you sometimes will only get 1 chance...i Don't trust a USB connection for this so i'd recommend re-inserting at as a slave drive internally.

The key here is to be prepared ahead of time.
Make sure the master drive has adequate space 1st.
2nd Turn off any and all apps that may normally read the master drive .....A?V apps; email checkers; system monitor apps etc. ....basically anything you don't need running.
3rd Do NOT try to burn the data directly....this takes longer first of all and secondly works the HDD harder.....copy/move the data to another HDD.

And 4th one thing that can be tried is to place the drive inside a double ziplok bag overnite in the freezer. This method only works approx 5 to 8 % of the time so don't get your hopes up.....

Best of Luck.