Even though the Disk Management program recognizes my external drive and letter - and even though I can access it and use file transfer to and from, the drive is not displayed on My computer list of drives.Appreciate any help.Thanks.Abe

Hi Abe, any exclamation or question marks in the control panel --> system --> hardware --> device manager? No error messages? Good luck and kind regards Jaap

Hi Jaap,No exclamation or question marks. Device manager and Disk manager give the drive a 'healthy' rating with no problem. But I think the problem is some bad sectors towards the end. The problem started when I was within the last 40 gigs of the 200 gig drive.My question, which is possibly the correction of the letter display, is: I need to 'map' and close the bad sectors. Any particular software I can use to do that? I know in the past I was able to do that.Thanks.Abe

Abe,what brand is the drive?, and have you used their Disk check program(s)?, instead of XP to check the drives health?

Hi guys, in a bit of a hurry... IMHO, it's a pretty alarming sign and I dearly hope you have a solid backup of all your data, Abe. Personally, I wouldn't rely on the data which is on the external drive any longer. Error correction can do away with corrupt data upto a certain point but then it's over. Is it SATA or USB/FW? If it's SATA I might have a clue. Kind regards Jaap

Thanks guys,This is a Western Digital-USB2 EXTERNAL. I use mostly as a secondary back up drive. It was running ok for over 1.5 years, and now it's acting up. Jaap, I have a couple of other external drives which I use primarily for backup. I am well aware of the importance of backup - I also backup the most important things on DVD. I lost data a couple of times a long time ago. So I learned! Speaking of Sata, I just purchased a 500 GB WD sata, which I added to my completely SCSI system. I partitioned it into 3 equal parts and it seems to be working flawlessly. The sata 500gb is a lot cheaper than a SCSI one, allbeit a lot slower.Thanks again.Abe

Hi Abe, looks like your 'partition proficient' enough to do without my help. :-) As Davis suggested, a HD test program might be able to give you some more clues? Are you still covered by a warranty or is it one of those failures which occur a day or two after the warranty expires? I hope not. Good luck and kind regards Jaap

Hi again, Jaap.First off, thanks for your time again and again. I do appreciate your input and support. The warranty as you guessed has expired by 6 months.....and 1 day (I am still smiling).Buy the way, a bit of so-so news. I was able to display my drive letter. At one time, I was using 'K' for the drive, then I had to re-letter 'L'. Then, after all the mess and tries, I decided to change it to the original 'K'......lo and behold ......it displayed on my computer. I am glad it came back - my guess is that SOMEHOW the registry retained the original 'K' as the 'ligit domain letter' (please don't mind my word fabrication).I will still use the drive - but I'll be extra careful to what I 'throw' there.Thanks again, Jaap. If you know anything about transferring a mini-panel from FS9 to FSX let me know.Best regards.AbeP.S. I just remembered, I ran a surface scan with System Mechanic, and NO BAD sectors.

Abe,suggest to use the scan program from WD themself, as its ment for their drives. Running third party aps isn't bad, but keep in mind that they are made for pretty much any brand drive. Sometimes using dedicated aps, you get a more reliable report, that some other dont show you.

Hi Davis,I did use a program by WD - DataLifeguard.exe - it did not help. If you read my posting above. I mentioned that System Mechanic found NO BAD SECTORS. And also now my drive letter is displayed - once I reverted to my original 'K' lettering.Regards.Abe