Thanks to seahwk83 I now have an external drive that is now recognised by my computer. The follow on problem is that I cannot get into it. It is there within 'my computer' but when I try to access the local drive, the computer displays a dialogue box saying - "J:/ is not accessible The Semaphore time out period has expired" What does this message mean?

I do not know this is related but I was running a full systems virus scan (Nortons 2008) which also timed out.

See this link for info, hopefully it will help with error, if not post back with as much info as possible
Advanced network adapter troubleshooting for Windows workstations

You mentinoed the drive is seen as J drive, is this correct, should it be J drive or should it be another drive letter

If this is not the correct drive letter or should be another dirve letter, see this link
How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP

If it is not the right drive letter, see 2nd link first to see if the drive letter can be corrected and then check to see if you can acces the drive and info on it