I have a Western Digital external Hard Drive that keeps shutting down - sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes not at all.

When this happens I have to turn the computer off and then on again to get that drive to show up.

I emailed WD tech support but never got a response.

Anyone have any similar experiences? I'm thinking it might be a faulty drive?

Are you using a firewire interface, or USB? I have some Maxtor external drives that can use either, and they tend to temporarily die (disappear from explorer) when on firewire, but don't seem to under USB operation. Also, there's a known bug in WinXP with SP2 that can affect drives and cameras -

http://digitalproducer.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=91360

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=17794

If your drive is shutting down completely, it may be a different problem; mine kept running physically, just couldn't see 'em anymore... Steve

My drive is shutting down completely - the blue circular light goes out and the drive stops spinning.

I'll try downloading the latest XP updates to see if it helps.

Thanks.