October 23, 2007 6:44 PM BST
if the disc is spinning it should be ok, well unless it sounds like a disc sander of course. it also sounds like windows is seeing it, and then going into a loop.
do you have one of them usb memory sticks? if so plug that in and see what happens.
also do you have anything else that would qualify as a usb drive, thinking camera or mobile phone? these will use the same drivers, if they work they may 'reset' the settings in windows. if they don't the fault is defiantly windows.
an alternative is to try the drive in another machine.
failing that grab a 'linux live' cd and boot from that, using whatever default settings it wants (linux isn't that scary but its not worth playing with for this purpose) then plug the drive in and see if linux sees it, if so its definatly windows with the problem.
I've had this before its normally some sort of windows hiccup or possibly spyware.
one nasty I ended up removing blocked usb drives, the cd/dvd drives and various web sites basically to try and prevent removal tools being installed.. nasty.. amazing what a these idiots do.
but seriously try the disc in another machine and if possible a memory stick usb drive in your machine to see what happens.
if windows gets annoyed when you unplug this drive it has seen it, and is doing something but has not yet finished mounting it.
don't give up
these things are sent to try you