Time Machine can not be mounted - external drive

I have an external Maxtor USB drive that's been my time machine since forever. Yesterday I noticed that it's not mounting. I KNOW it was mounting the day before because I had to use it. But now the drive is not mounting, and I don't know why.
The drive is on, the light is on, but it's not mounting. Out of curiosity, my husband hooked it up to his Vista PC and he was able to browse to it all dandy. But then back on my computer, it's not being recognized.
It's not showing up in disk utility, though my other external drive, my iphoto drive, is having no problems. It's not the USB port, as my ipod works on either port, as does my iphoto drive.
Can anyone help?
I've unplugged it, plugged it back in. Rebooted the computer without it attached.

I solved my problem. I tried plugging it into another computer and it popped up on the screen. AHA! Before I tried that, I had ONLY unplugged the drive but had NOT crawled under the desk to unplug it from the main power source. It just needed to be TOTALLY unplugged and left alone for a few minutes. Those little green men obviously can bunch up anywhere and need a total disconnect, for several minutes at least, to unbind. Ahh, sort of like un-constipating the system?
KC
Message was edited by: KCChoirgirl

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