why cant I access my drive?

I dont know what happened I was going to download my latest photos onto my media drive. A Maxtor 200GB usb external drive. but when I turned on my comp there was a red question mark over my quick launch icon. I clicked on it and it said "The drive or network connection that the shortcut `Shortcut to Local Disk (F).lnk' refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and try again."

I checked the usb port, and switched it. I checked in device manager both usb and drive controllers, both register it and say it is working. I tried to do a system restore but it says that it wont effect drive F:. The power is connected, I feel the disk spinning. I dont know what else to do..that disk has all my photos..PLEASE HELP ME FIND THE CAUSE!!!!!!

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Just waiting for

Uninstall and re-install the drive completely, drivers and everything.

*Edit - More specifically uninstall the drive completely drivers and all, then reboot and re-install the drive.

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A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. ~Bruce Lee