My MacBook does not recognize my Buffalo hard disk

I own a 1 TB buffalo hard disk that I have been using occasionally as backup to my files. I have plenty of files that I normally back up regularly by connecting the drive to my computer through a USB port. Recently, my MacBook has failed to recognize my hard drive. Everything seems okay with the hard drive. It is powered, making revolutions but it does not do anything further than that. Even the Icon can not be seen on the Mac OS. I am running OSX 10.5.8. Is this a software issue or hardware? Please help me solve it.
