Uh - oh

Hopefully somebody can help me out here.

Every time that I think i have the external hard drive working again, I get a message that it wasn’t properly shut down before being disconnected, then it loses all access to the computer. The icon is gone from the desktop, and it doesn’t show up on disc utility.

The only way that I can get it operating again is to unplug it, but then it only works for a day before I get the improper disc connect message and it disappears again.

Advice please?