I have a hardrive that worked on all the computers in my house and I used it on the computer downstairs moved some files then took it upstairs to watch a film and the computer didn't recognise it well it came up with a little bubble saying windows does not recognise this usb device one or more of your devices may have malfunctioned. I tried plugging it in again reset the computer and tried it in the one downstairs and it doesn't work on that one either I'm so gutted it makes that sound though (the one when you plug in a device so it does recognise it, it just won't show up) I'm so useless with computers that I don't know what to do if you have any ideas I am willing to try anything I just got it completely sorted and now I fear its died completely... :( :(

Sounds like its an external hard drive. External drives should always be disconnected safely using the Safely remove hardware icon.

You can try to connect it as a slave to your host PC, by removing the physical drive from the external enclosure, and see if Windows recognize it.

Umm there is no indication the drive is in an external enclosue. If it's a standard USB drive it wouldn't be.

Assuming you removed the drive correctly, it might be the cable. Is the drive externally powered?