External WD Drive Mounts, But is Alias, No Access

Just got a brand new macbook pro. Snow Leopard. The attached back-up drive, a WD 1.5T, mounts but when I click the drive icon, a message comes up that it is an alias, with options: delete, cancel or find original. When attempting to link back to the drive, it is visible but grayed out.
I can however mount it on an older mac book running 10.5. It mounts fast and I can see and access all the files. The WD disk ap says both drives within are ok.
It is definitely a Snow Leopard issue.
I checked the permissions and all are 'read and write'.
I logged in as root as described in an earlier post... with no luck.
Tried both usb and firewire.
Today I am taking both computers and the drive to the mac store... and yes, I did back up the back up.

Any suggestions are welcome regarding my mystery.

Read the following article: LINK Although it refers to the "startup" drive, the same thing can happen to any drive that is external or attached. You'll see from the article that the symptoms you describe are similar. Don't know if the fix will work for you but give it a try. Let us know.

Regards.