Allright, this is especially annoying since the ED in question has about 500 GBs of backup material, not to mention my CC and lots of mods in it, and it just decided to not show up on My Computer (Toshiba laptop on win XP, btw).
So, last Saturday, it worked fine, until a suprise power outage happened (typical in my country). Now, since my laptop runs on battery power, it still worked fine, but then things start getting wonky when the power returned. A few minutes after power returned, while trying to transfer some pics, my comp crashed, and I had to force-shutdown it. And then I left for some martial arts classes. When I returned, the external drive in question failed to appear in My Computer.
When I plug it in, the usual USB insert sound happened, and you could safely remove the device. BUT it won't show up in My Computer. The device shows up on Disk Management, but it says it's uninitialized. Now, from my browsings through the net, it's either caused by the MBR file being corrupt, or something with the enclosure's amperage being wonky.
Now I've just tried using the trial version of Acronis Disk Director to salvage the partition, but it doesn't show up any deleted or damaged partition in my External Drive.
I don't want to wipe 500 GBs worth of games, mod-in-progresses, and backup, what should I do?

Now, the external drive had only done this kind of stunt once, probably last Thursday while in the office comp running win 7. It didn't show up on My Computer, and once it did, it would cease working (as if disconnected). The problem solved itself a few hours later.

So, have anyone else experienced this kind of problem, and how would I fix this Axioo 500 GB External Drive without losing the contents within?

Uh, there should just be a right click option to initialize the disk or whatever, have you tried that?
E: Also you may not realize this but pictures help a million times over, take some.

I've read that this will, unfortunately, wipe the contents of the drive in question.
And ♥♥♥♥ if I allow that to happen.

This is the drive in question.
http://www.google.com/search?q=axioo+50 ... 38&bih=543

... I meant a picture of your actual problem. How about your disk management screen and anything else you think might be relevant.

Oh... ok then.

fffff- tinypic won't work, I'll edit this post tomorrow with pictures.

1) Convert it to an internal drive
2) Stick it in a desktop
3) See what happens

What whitty said. It'd be wise to find out if it's really the external harddisk that's giving problems. It might be just fine.

Nevermind guys, I got it fixed. Turns out it's really an MBF problem, only that Acronis doesn't detect the partition. Used EaseUS partition manager (I think) which is a freeware program. Detected and repaired it flawlessly.
Mod may lock this thread now, unless there are people who have the same problems.