my vote is with artbrooks--go to the mfg website and read up. Also google something like, "external drive, can't find" and such things--someone, somewhere, has had the same problem, and has a solution--a quick check shows someone with this problems was told to try DISK MANAGEMENT--another person mentions that iPod software seems to cause problems recognizing drives on USB--so the truth is out there--

For next time, tell your son to back up all his music to cds or dvds. You can store it as data rather than music, and it is way cheaper than backing up to another external drive, plus, you don't have to worry about the drive breaking down--