My external hard drive won't show up on the desktop!!

Alright!
I bought a 250Go external hard disk at the same time as my alumnium iMac around september 2007. Since then I had no problems.
I also created partitions on my hard disk:
1 - Mac = Mac OS extended (Journaled) 202 Go
2 - PC = MS-DOS (Fat) 30 Go
When I turn on on my hard disk, both icons usually appear on my desktop but since yesterday, ONLY my PC icon appear.
I went in the Disk Utility and it seems that the MAC partition is always here but won't show up on the desktop. It's like it's become invisible or something.
Should I be worried? Because I use the MAC partition to back up all my files with Time Machine.
I find it annoying so anybody can help me out? Thanks!!

Patrick, I have same issue with my (Intel) MacBook's internal HD. Tried your Script solution but recv'd Systems Events ERROR "Can't set disk "MacBook HD" to true".
The (missing) HD is Boot Camp Partitioned and running Fusion. BTW, Fusion/WinXP will no longer open - "File not Found" error. Also, I didn't immediately notice the disappearance because my MacBook started booting from one of ext HD's (w/o me changing the startup drive).
Any ideas greatly appreciated. I haven't tried the Terminal solutions posted since I'm not Terminal savey.

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My external hard drive won't show up on the desktop!!

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