External hdd won't mount in XP

[Banzai_Joe]

I've epxerienced this plenty over the years, but never really found a good-for-all cure.
I've been reformatting some 2.5" hdd's by putting them into an external caddy and mounting on my XP Pro desktop etc.
I've done 2 drives this morning no problem.
The last one gives a 'bing bong' sound as it does when windows recognises hardware. It tells me the hardware is installed an ready to use, but it won't mount, so i can't do anything with it. Unlugging it and replugging it in, gives the same 'bing bong' but still won't mount.
I've looked in computer management and refreshed the drives lists, but nothing.
Can't think of what else to do.....HELP!....please

 

[Shrapnel]

I'm not sure if you've done this bit in computer management, but just in case you haven't :

Go to Disk manager in computer management, see if the drive (not the drive letter) exists. If you can see it then try right clicking and selecting 'Initialise'.

Good luck.

 

[Banzai_Joe]

Thanks for the advice, although it doesn't even see the drive, it only sees C drive and the optical drive. I did a rescan, but to no avail.