I installed SuSe Linux 10.1, and it recognized well all the system drives. It is on the same hard disk that Windows XP Professional is. I have a Maxtor 3200 External Hard Disk connected to a Belkin 4 port hub.

The External Hard Disk green light is ON, and the Belkin hub's yellow light is also ON. However, the External Hard Disk icon does not appear on the SuSe Linux Gnome desktop.

When I log out the Restart option works well, but the Shut Down option does not seem to perform as it should. A blue screen just appears when SuSe Linux halts, but green and the red lights on the front of the computer case remain on.

Is there any way that the External Hard Disk can be recognized again by SuSe Linux 10.1?

Check the output of dmesg after you've plugged the drive in. The last lines should indicate potential problems. Maybe the partition table is not properly recognised.