Not recognizing external drive - WD in an Enclosure...

I hate to post this given all the other posts wrt external drive not working - wish I'd read those before making a purchase....
I bought an internal WD 1TB drive, put it in an enclosure (Vantec NexStar 3) with a firewire 800 conection. Connected and formatted beutifully. Copied files to and deleted from without a problem...
then started moving some iMovie files over - left the room for a while, came back (about 1/2 hour) and the WD drive was no longer recognized. Couldn't figure out how to get it back. I've managed to get it back a couple of times over the past 3 days, but hard to figure out the sequences that make it work.
I also have a WD Network drive and it looks like there may be a conflict between the two as it is hard to get both on at the same time - though that has been successful a couple of times.
2 questions:
1) is there a way to set WD drives to not sleep? or to sleep in accordance with the Mac? (from all the reading of similar issues, it sounds like that could be an issue.)
2) any idea how to check for drive conflicts on a Mac?
any other ideas about what it is would be great!!
I'm right now trying to get it connected so I can get the files off it, format it, and take it back - then purchase a Mac-specific drive from one of the known vendors I've been hearing about on this forum. (any recommendations about which would be better/best? 1TB or greater, firewire 800, for working on iMovie movies prediminently)
Thanks in advance!

WD drive mechanisms work very well. Most of my drives are currently WD, including the one that came installed inside my iMac. I like them because they seem to run quiet and cool. It's the Western Digital branded external drive enclosures that I've seen negative commentary about in various forums.
is there a way to set WD drives to not sleep? or to sleep in accordance with the Mac?
When the drive is in an external enclosure, I believe that is a function of the enclosure, not the drive mechanism. The enclosures I currently own are from Mac-oriented vendors (like OWC - www.macsales.com) and they can sense and follow the wake/sleep/off status of the Mac it is connected to automatically. I tend to buy such products from companies that specialize in supporting Mac users, because they have fully tested their products with Macs. In addition to OWC, others include LaCie, Macally, and G-Drive.
any idea how to check for drive conflicts on a Mac?
So the new drive (Vantec) is FireWire 800. Is the "WD network drive" connect via USB? I don't think there would be any conflict if it was connected over a network.
Mac OS X does not have things like Windows drive letters, so the usual conflict is a hardware conflict, or a case of exceeding the power available on the bus (whether it's USB or FireWire). Disconnect all other peripherals except a standard keyboard/mouse. Make sure each drive works by itself. Then connect the two at the same time. Then add any other peripherals one at a time. And make note of when, and if, there is a failure.
Also, it is easy to not consider how many devices you have connected to one power strip that is connected to one power outlet. There is a limit to how much power can go through a single power outlet, so if it looks even remotely crowded, be sure to spread the power cords for the iMac, external drives, second display, cell phone charger, USB hub, printer, your desk lamp, etc. to two or even three power strips connected to separate power outlets.

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Not recognizing external drive - WD in an Enclosure...

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