External USB HD Diagnostics

Hello,

I have a Fantom external USB 1TB HD and recently it has been acting up unusually. When I boot Wndows XP Home Ed (updated past SP3) the drive doesn’t show up unless I flip the power off then back on for the drive. I have checked my services in Win XP to make certain that PNP is turned on along with other associated servcies and they are on. This began me wondering, since USB external HDs (regardless of size) don’t get detected until AFTER Win is booted into how can a diag program be run on the drive? Does any one know of any Windows diagnostic programs to run a diag on the drive?

Thank you,
Alisa