WD Elements External HDD 750gb - Problem

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poolman

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Im running XP SP3. I have a ton of data on this 750gb external hd:

WD ELEMENTS 750 GB external hard drive NEW IN RETAIL BX - eBay (item 220350129875 end time Feb-22-09 21:45:31 PST)

Its hard to find any info on this model. I was converting a mkv file to a mp4 using XenonMKV on the external and about 10 minutes into it the blue light was flashing on the externals case and it sounded like a clicking noice (how it does when a CD players laser gets stuck). The only way to get it to stop it was to shut down the computer.

When i started it back up, the hd wasn't recognized or being mounted as a drive anymore so its not showing up in "My Computer". When I look for the drive in device manager, it only shows up as "WD". Ive tried to uninstall the driver and reinstall it but that didnt work. Ive also tried other USB inputs and other computers, and the 360 and nothing will recognize it.

When I listen to the external when i plug it in, (there is no on/off switch, just usb and power plug) I hear it starting to spin, attempting that 3 times, then stopping all together.

Ive used a program called testdisk-6.10.win to try to repair the partition table because in my researching, Ive found that others have had this problem and that fixed it. That program says that if it recognizes it but it recognizes the wrong size, then the repair wont work effectively. Well thats exactly what happened. It recognized it as a 2TB hdd when its only 750gb.

I have about 600gb of data on the hdd (including mine and the wifes turbotax pdf's) and im not going to spend 1000's for dollars for a recovery because i think there might be a fix or solution to my problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions?!
 
Clicking sounds are not good? Have you tried putting it in the freezer for a few hours? Keeping in mind if it works you will only get a few hours out of it so just use the time to back up data.
 
No I havent done the freezer trick yet.

Its not clicking anymore though, just that one time. Now, when I start it up, it tries to spin 3 times and feels like it "doesnt catch".

Ive also heard of opening the external casing and just hooking up the hdd inside to my machine. The problem with that is i hear it might be a SATA hdd which i dont have on my machine. Hopefully its IDE but i dont want it to come to that. Does anyone know whats inside these 750gb WD Elements externals?

Also, the external is less than 3 months old. So i dont think its an issue of wear at all. Help please!
 
WD site does not give the drive specs but I would assume based upon size that it is sata. Have you tried connecting it to another computer?
 
through the usb yes. ive also plugged it into the xbox 360's usb that normally recognizes it and nothing does. i know it wants to work because i can see it in device manager but now its changed names. Before it used to say something like "WD Elements External" and now it just says "WD" so my computer definetly sees it.
 
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