Mac Book and External Drive

i have been trying to find a solution to my problem by going thru the threads but cant seem to find one. I have an external hard drive which has been working fine with my macbook pro. Today when i connected it i cant see it in the sidebar. I have already checked the following:
1. I see the icon on my desktop and can access the files on the ext drive thru that
2. When i search for files i can find files from my ext drive
3. In preferences i can choose my ext drive as the drive to open in new finder window
4. In preferences i have ticked (chosen) external disks

I dont know what else to do. I am really a novice at this and do not know any commands etc. Can someone please tell me what the issue is and what should i do to be able to see my ext disk in finder again?

Thanx in advance

Do you have "External disks" checked off in the Finder Preferences, Sidebar Tab, which state at the top: "Show these items in the sidebar:" ?

chscag said:

Do you have "External disks" checked off in the Finder Preferences, Sidebar Tab, which state at the top: "Show these items in the sidebar:" ?

Click to expand...

Yes i have

Uncheck it, close preferences, go back in and check it again.

And Make sure you're on the Sidebar tab, not the General tab.