Hi,

I have a WD usb external 500gb hard drive and it has stopped working....

Today I plugged it in to my laptop as usual for file transfering and find that it does not work. On boot up it makes a nice clicking noise so most likely its dead.... I have called WD and ordered a RMA but I need to figure out a way to get my data.

I have data recovery software but the problem is that I cant even get the drive to register in windows xp.

I plug in the usb cable and the drive powers up. The blue night in the front comes on and you can hear it powering up. A few seconds later you here the windows chime that indicates a usb drive has been connected. The Safety Remove Hardware icon also shows up in the the task bar and when you dbl click on it there's a USB Mass storage device listed.

However, nothing shows up in my computer.

So I ran a cross-ref to dbl check, in computer management, in Device manager, under Disk Drives it registers as WD External USB Device.

BUT under Disk Management there is DISK 1, only the DISK 0 which is the internal drive.... wtf???

Is there anyway to get the drive to register so i can run a data recovery on it???

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

Well I had worked on one of these before, The same EXACT problem, I suggest to never buy those external ones, your better off to make your own It will only show that there is something plugged in but trust me its not working, its just the mobo in the external drive case that converts it to usb. But to me the clicking noise seems like the arm is stuck or something. give it a little hit maybe? I did that with a old hard drive that was doing that and its been working ever since. odd... But If you wanna do everything possible first then try those first if all else fails try hitting it on a table or something, it could work, Even people with ipods had to do that when it freezes cause the arm gets stuck on the plater.

I doubt I helped but I hope it helps!

Cheers!

i took it apart and connect directly to a sata cable, bios wont even pick it up... i think its really dead