Rre: Maxtor ext. HD. I and two of my buddies have had the same probelm with the Maxtor HD. This is whhat we have found. If you are using XP and if you havea USB 2 installed and running, try this.
Turn off you ext hard drive and disconnect the USB 2 cable before you boot up.
After Windows XP has booted up, plug in the USB cable, and turn on the Maxtor and wait for XP to recognize the presence of another mass storage device. If it does you are home free and You can use the ext HD with Windows explorere or My Computer. When you are finished with the Maxtor, got thru the shut down proceedure BEFORE shutting down XP.
After this, you should be able to turn on the Maxtor at any time AFTER booting up.
If this does notr work, you may have tore-install the maxtor drivers. Good Luck