Formatted Ext. HD Unrecognized After Reboot

Hello,

I have a WD elements external hard drive. I recently formatted it (using WD Quick Formatter) to make it recognizable by my PC. <--- The ext. hard drive formally was used with Macs)

After the quick format, I was able to assign the drive a letter and access it/use it willingly.

I began transferring important files and media to the external hard drive to conserve space on the internal. After hours of freeing up space and transferring files I restarted my computer.

Now the drive is back to showing up as a GPT protective partition. I'm again unable to access the drive, assign it a letter, partition it or any combination within disk management.

The WD diagnostic tool I've downloaded from the WD support website gives the ext. hard drive a "PASS" on the report testing. The device properties shows that the device is enabled and working properly.

I know that I can quick format the WD external again and it will allow me to re-partition and assign whichever letters within disk management.. though.. I really do not want to lose all of my valuable data!!! .. not to mention.. I'm keenly aware that I can't be formatting the drive every time I restart my PC. LOL. :)

Any Ideas on what seems to be the problem here. !?!?!?!?!!?

I'm a bit computer savvy.. I can follow directions properly. No fix will be too complex. . Though I'm hoping for a simple one heh.


I'm running a prehistoric DELL Dimension E510, Dual Core 2GB ram, Windows XP SP3.

Any info needed don't hesitate to ask. I really appreciate any help to clear up this issue! :)