HDD Spinning up & down consistently

[Tokyo Bebop]

I seem to be having quite a bit of a problem... My older brother who just got back from Iraq brought with him a WD Passport Essential Portable HDD Now he couldnt figure out what was wrong with it so he brought it to me, Now i cant pinpoint the problem exactly but i can speculate that "Something" is preventing the drive from spinning up correctly. When i plug it in the USB slot it spins up normally at first then quickly spins down, it has been doing this consistently. I just need to get the data off the drive but i need help. What is causing this problem?

Also When i connect it to a USB device windows wont recognize the drive until the drive stops spinning completely at which point i put an ear to the drive and notice faintly audible clicking noises like it wants to spin up but something is blocking it from doing so...

 

[Hefemeister]

could be a power issue. Have you tried connecting it directly to your computer?

 

[Tokyo Bebop]

Yes i even tried switching cables and SATA ports and that didnt work either