Highlighted Hard Drive Icons on Desktop no longer open when dragging/copyin

I noticed this yesterday and I have no idea how to fix it - hope someone here might have a quick fix.
When I attempt to move files into my folders from the desktop, I used to simply drag the files over the icon of the hard drive I wished to place it, and the icon would highlight, and then open, and I could navigate to the folder I wanted and drop them, and all the windows would close.
Now when I attempt to move files off the desktop in this way, the hard drive icon will highlight, but won't' open the window automatically as it used to.
I've done a permission repair and that didn't help it.
Anyone know how to fix this?
Respectfully submitted,
Len

Thank you for your response. That was exactly the problem. I have no idea how it became switched off, since I'm the only one that uses the computer, but no matter.
Thanks for the help!

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[Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214]
[Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672]
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