Plug the drive into a usb port and it should mount . I have three
external usb hard drives drives of different makes and a usb DVD
burner attached to a Ubuntu 9.04 box. They have worked with every
version of Ubuntu that I have ever used. They mount and a window opens
when I plug them in and when I go to Places, Removable Media.

Insert a blank disk or a written one into the drive first before it will mount.