Is my external hard drive dieing?

I have a 4 year old external hard drive that just started acting up. When I start it up, Windows XP appears to recognize it and sometimes I can see it in "Disk Management." However I can not get on the hard drive as "My Computer" doesn't show it as a drive and I can't locate it by entering it in the search bar of Windows Explorer. Once in maybe every 20 tries it will work, but only for a couple minutes. It sounds like it's running ok, but it rarely shows up as a drive in "My Computer." I'm wondering if my computer or the hard drive has a virus. Or maybe the hard drive is dieing. I have tried adding it as a slave drive in a desktop computer with the same results. Any ideas?

I regularly use the free versions of AVG antivirus, Spybot Search %26 Destroy, and Lavasoft Adaware.

Is my external hard drive dieing?product key

Four years old - that is about right for a hard drive to begin to die. Recommend that you back up any files you want from the drive, and then plan on replacing it.

Check your drive, and see if it has an screws that will let you open it. Usually it is a common, normal hard drive just inside of a special case. If you can open the case, you can usually replace it with another standard hard drive cheaper then replacing both the drive and the case. (Just a little trick....)

Is my external hard drive dieing?triumph