1TB External Hard drive not responding:(

[DesiMunda]

Hello,
I been using my WD Elements external drive (1Tb) since more than a year and never had any problem. I used it mainly to play videos on my xbox360 but today it suddenly stopped working so when I try plugging it n my computer it doesn’t show up n my computer. Many people have been telling be that its “dead” so I don’t really care about the actual drive I am wondering if there is a way to recover the data easily? Also the bluelight on the drive still turns on and makes a sound for first few minutes of connecting it to the computer but after that it goes silent and “Safely remove hardware” icon appears in the taskbar so my computer recognizes the drive but the icon in my computer folder never appears so I cannot access the drive. I have tried plugging in different computer and still no luck. I know I don’t have a faulty usb cable since I used that same cable to connect my printer and it works fine. I am able to see the drive in device manager but not in disk management. Btw my drive is out of warranty as well. I downloaded "PC Inspector File Recovery" and as u can see here:http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/955/54603928.jpg it detects my drive but as 2Tb which is incorrect as mine is 1TB also it was doing the same thing when i tried someones suggested solution on this cnet forum to download this utility: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download and follow their steps but when i started doing it my drive shows the size of 2199 GB as you can see here: http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/1125/2000k.jpg
Please help me

Also i took the drive out of the enclosure but i have no idea how to connect it to my pc internally

[fzabkar]

Device Manager is detecting the USB-SATA bridge chip, but not the hard drive behind it. That's the reason for the bogus 2TB capacity.

What is the model number on the drive's label?

[DesiMunda]

WD10000EB035-01

[fzabkar]

Is that the model number on the drive, or the enclosure?

[DesiMunda]

that was the model # on enclosure .. here is the model # on drive: WD10EAVS-00D7B1

[fzabkar]

To install the drive in your PC, see the following guides.

WD SATA Hard Drive Quick Install Guide:
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2079-001042.pdf

Western Digital Serial ATA Hard Drive Installation Guide:
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2779-001006.pdf

Does it spin up, or sound like it is trying to spin up?

Does the computer's BIOS detect the drive?

[DesiMunda]

So you saying i should install the harddrive to my pc after taking it out of the enclosure? if yes which one of the guides should i follow ?  As i mentioned at the beginning that when i connect the drive (with the enclosure) it does sounds like its spinning also how can i check if my BIOS detects it or not ? i knw my computer does since i get that safely remove hardware thing.

[fzabkar]

One is a quick guide, the other is more detailed. Either guide is OK. Essentially you just need to connect the drive's power connector to your power supply, and the smaller data connector to your motherboard.

When your computer powers up, it goes through a POST (Power On Self Test). You should see the devices being identified on your screen during this time. BIOS should report your drive's model number and capacity in GB.

Your computer is probably detecting the USB-SATA bridge chip on the little board inside the enclosure. In fact, if you connect the empty enclosure to your computer, you will probably see it in Device Manager.

[pretenderuk]

Sorry, but i suddenly start having exactly the same problem.

and i've got loads of stuff (approx 600 Gb of data) there, and most of it very important for me.

i've used it less than a year, and less frequently than my other WD Elements external HDD (640 Gb).

my other one works as Time Machine back up. and so far, 1.5 years all OK.

but this 1 TB has the same problem as the original poster had.

please, let me know if the solution mentioned in the topic can actually help.

i don't want to loose the information on it, and don't want to format it.

thanks everyone. open to any suggestions and options to save my stuff.

[fzabkar]

You need to eliminate the USB-SATA bridge board inside the enclosure as a potential culprit. You can do this by connecting your drive directly to a computer motherboard.