[snip]
NOTE: A digital camera shows up as an USB drive, i.e. a DOS
drive -> e.g. /cygdrive/<next free letter> - and is available
so long as the camera stays ON (it eventually WILL go OFF
after last use, just as your screen blanker! Depending on how
you've set it or use it.)
A USB Mass Storage Device that does this is poorly designed at best, and
probably not compliant with the USB specification. I can't recall a
situation where a device is allowed to just "disappear" once plugged in and
enumerated without the user doing something (a bus-powered device anyway).
You should see if there is a firmware upgrade available for it.
Then again, I know firsthand that Microsoft had USB Mass Storage pretty
wildly wrong as late as the release of XP SP...2 I think, maybe 1, so who
knows, could be MS's fault.