Passport only shows with my left usb port, but right port isn't broken

My external drive isn't working with the usb port on the right side of my computer, but works fine with the left. Other usb devices work fine with the right port, so I don't know what the problem is. When I plug it into the right port, the power light on the external drive lights up and I can hear the components in it moving, but it doesn't show up anywhere. I checked disk management and it doesn't show up anywhere else. I suppose I could just keep it on the left side, but I since its attached to my laptop and not a desktop, I tend to move around a lot on that side and it comes disconnected, causing me frustration and loss of data if I haven't saved or backed up my data from a program installed on that drive recently.