External HD not showing up on Desktop

I've been using a WD 500gb Firewire HD for my Time Machine backup for some time now without problem. Just noticed that the WD disc is not showing up on my G5 iMac Desktop and the last backup was on March 8. I've tried unplugging the WD drive, disconnecting the firewire cable, etc., but I haven't figured out how to get the external HD to remount. This has happened occasionally in the past and some seemingly random combination of unplugging, disconnecting seems to get it to remount. When I go into Disc Utility it doesn't show up. Any advice appreciated.
Thanks, Jim

kaks4 wrote:
i am having the same issue. the external HD appears in disk utility but not as a mounted drive
when i run disk utility repair, its unable to repair it and gives me a "sibling link error"
If Disk Utility can't repair it, a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app might or might not. DiskWarrior is probably recommended here most often. It's about $100. There are some less expensive ones, for less money. Check with Google, VersionTracker.com, MacUpdate.com, and the like.
If neither can repair it, you might be able to erase and re-use it with Disk Utility, but it's probably dead or dying.
Is this a TM drive, or does it have other data on it?
If it's other data, you do have it backed-up, don't you?

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[email protected]

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