Troubles With External Hard drive

I'm using an iBook G4. So I have a 1TB Western Digital External, and it has worked perfectly for me for about 5 months now, and yesterday I accidently pushed the "off button" on the 6 plug power stick, I hadn't ejected the hard drive and had no intention to either. So now after the "Device Removal" error popped up, I waited a few minutes did a cold boot and plugged in the external back into my iBook through the same spot, USB, but it hasn't popped back up on my desktop. Yet this has occurred possibly 3-5 other times and I got the external to be recognized on my laptop and it works perfectly afterwards, within only a few minutes. I have tried everything I know and I really need to access a few applications on the hard drive. So any suggestions or knowledge on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Not only does it not pop up on my desktop but only disk utilities recognizes it, but it can't do anything with it. Since I am having input/output issues.

You say you can see it in disk utility? What do you mean by input/output issues?

What happens if you attempt to mount it in disk utility?

Input/Output issues as in when I try to either mount it or repair disk, it loads for like 10 minutes then dies because of an input/output error. And yes I do see it in disk utilities.

Can you verify the disk in utilities?
I would make that my next step, check it from utilities (from your install disc).

I can't actually. It's saying input output error everytime.

Then I would say that the fault probably lies on the controller board on the hdd. Or possibly in the external chassis... Do you happen to have another chassis you can swap the hdd into?

I do not have one, where could I find one for a cheap price. And also why would it not work this time? And it has been able to be recognized all the other times.

Drives tend to not like sudden power drops.

I can tell... . Do you think it could have to do with the USB cord, cause I have had troubles with it in the past. And also why would the external not recognize this time, yet it has in the past after its lost power?

it could, and I'd certainly try it... but the smaller the electrical conductor the less tolerant it is... why now? Couldn't really tell you, why does anything fail when it does.

BTW, local place to me sells chassis for > $30.

Ok cool, wait I just plugged it in via USB into my G6 Tower, and it immediately was recognized... What in the world? Ok i am gonna now try it on my laptop again, and see if there is any better result.
Why did the Tower recognize it immediately???

More power down the USB bus I suspect. Therefore the problem must lie with the Laptop power supply via USB.

Even though the external has its own power supply and not being dependent of my laptop?

Sweet, I finally got it to work, and I have no idea how. It just popped up on my desktop, and it works perfectly. Well, thanks Kevriano, and Dysfunction, for all the support. I really wish though that I knew what went wrong, and also how it started working again.