dukdukgoose

Thanks for the suggestion. I think this might have actually worked. It took a little ingenuity to be able to clean the contacts inside the laptop. The space between the contacts and the plastic tab is very small -- too small for a regular cotton swab. In case anyone else has a similar challenge, I ended up using an eye glasses lens cleaning tissue. (They come in small packages like a Wet-Nap but with isopropyl alcohol. I know they sell them at Costco.)

Anyway, I cleaned both sets of contacts and the drive was recognized when I rebooted. I'm going to assume the problem is solved rather than rebooting a couple of times and pushing my luck. I'll post again if the problem recurs, but I think we can mark this one as solved.

Thanks, dai and everyone else who contributes to the forum. I really appreciate the help!