mac1

Hi all
I bought a Black Cyclone USB 2.0 External IDE Box and installed a Maxtor 200Gb Hard Drive into it which is set to "master".
Then i used XP's disc management to install it/format it as "Initialised Basic & NTFS Format, G: Drive, (see computer spec below)
Everything went ok so i transfered stuff off my other drives to it and all seemed ok.
But sometimes when i start my computer the drive has gone and when i go to XP's Disk Management it says the drives offline and also unallocated, so i have to start all over again, "Initialise & Format".

this happens all the time now, I can't figure out why it's loosing all the data or why XP cannot see it.
Do i have to treat it as you do other USB devices and use "Safely Remove Hardware" before i shutdown my computer.

Why do i have to keep "Initialise & Format" it everytime.

All i want is an external drive that i can trust and is there when windows starts.

Or am i missing something.

hope someone can help.

thanks
mac

My computer spec:
WinXP-Pro-SP2, AMD-Athlon3300+, 1024mb Ram. GeForce FX 5600-256mb ram, (2=120Gb Internal H/D Partitioned into C:,D:,E:,F: Drives), (2=DVD-RW-DL Drives H:, I: Drives) (Jetway V600DAP Motherboard)