My Book Essential 2TB help... delayed write error

Hello everyone. I could really use some help. I have a My Book Essential 2TB external that I use for all my daughter’s video files. I often connect it to my WDTV Live Hub. The drive has worked fine for a while. A few nights ago it was connected to my laptop and I was moving some new files over. I walked away and when I came back there was a delayed write error message. At that time, I could still see the drive connected in Windows Explorer, but I could not drill down into any folders. Since then, if I connect it to the laptop, the sound indicates that something has been connected, but it does not show up and is not recognized. I tried connecting it to the WDTV Live Hub and it does not show up. I tried connecting it to another PC and it sees it, downloads a driver, but then it will not show up in My Computer or Windows Explorer.

I am using Win XP on a laptop. I checked the FAQ for this kind of error and it makes several suggestions. It is not the power or the USB cable, because using the same ones after this incident I have successfully connected other WD externals that I use. The only one I haven’t tried is a MS hotfix. Since I can connect other WD externals I don’t feel like that will be the fix. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Is the drive visible on Disk Management or device manager on any computer?

Just to be safe, back up EVERYTHING on that drive.  I got that maybe 10 months after I bought my My Book Essential 3TB drive, and it died shortly after.  Now, 4 months after getting my seond one, the same thing is starting to happen again.

I wish I could find a solution to stop this, but I suspect there may be something about these larger drives that may not be right.  Never had an issue with ANY WD product before (short of a drive wearing out after YEARS of use) so this really **bleep**. 

Searches for the delayed write message online show it only being a problem on XP machines, however, they say it may also be caused by a bad cable or connection.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed on mine…

Sometimes, unhooking the power cable and letting it sit for 2-3 minutes, then plugging it into a different USB port solves the problem for a while for me.

I also think the new larger drives are more delicate and complex. If you have the time checkout the 3 videos I posted here http://community.wdc.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/How-Hard-Drives-Work/td-p/321183 they explain a lot.

Joe