External Hard Drive Problem - "Please insert a disk into drive _:"

[Ependeon]

I was using my external HD to backup data from my laptop (I plan on doing a system recovery).  The HD had originally been hooked up to my PC with no problems.  A few minutes in, the transfer stops and I get a message that the drive is not ready. 

Now when I try to access the hard drive from either the PC or the laptop I get a message that says "Please insert a disk into drive (letter of the drive):".  Something I noticed, not sure if it's relevant, is that originally the HD was (G:) on the PC.  When I connected it to my laptop, the drive was recognized as (F:).  After I got the error and connected it back to the PC the HD was recognized as (F:), same as the laptop but different than it originally was on the PC.

I'm running XP Home on both the PC and laptop.

Can anyone please help?

[Broni]

I may be mistaken, but I understand, that external HD will work only with the computer on which it was created.
Have that external HD ever worked? Is it genuine external HD, or internal with enclosure?

[patio]

Sounds like it was unplugged without using Safely Remove Hardware...
Right click My Computer and select Manage...
From there choose Disk Management and right click the offending drive and select Properties...
Does it say RAW ? ?

[alberto]

I got the same problem with my external HDD, when i try to open it, it show the massege "please into disk drive D: ".... please help me

[Computer_Commando]

How do they find these old threads?