Flash drive & external hd conflicts

[gannman]

I have a Dell Dimension that is about 4 years old. I have two (1) 500 G external hard drives that are synchronized for backup. I purchased a multi-card reader for my pc tonight and when I plug it in while starting the pc, the external drives do not come up-they are absolutely "gone", not being read. The card reader come up fine. When I boot he system up without the card reader plugged in and then plug it in, I get a USB Device Not Recognized error.
Is there anything that can be done to get around this? The external drives are assigned so when I boot up and they are "missing" no other drives take their letters.

Thanks, any advice is appreciated!

gannman

 

[r_manic]

Just as a clarification, everything's plugged in via USB?

 

[gannman]

Everything is plugged via USB, yes. I have four ports in back and 2 in front.
Everything is plugged in from the back. I did try and plug in from the front and got the same results.

Thanks,
gannman

Just as a clarification, everything's plugged in via USB?

 

[gannman]

Everything is plugged in via USb, correct.