Drive is making a clunking noise

[zGornjak]

Western Digital My Book Esential Edition 500gb - Vista lists it as Unknown Device

Hey all,

I'm having a somewhat of a strange problem. I have 2 WD external disks. One is 1TB and one is 500gb. The 1TB drive is working fine but Vista (64bit) decided not to recognize my 500gb drive anymore and is now listing it as unknown device.

Furthermore, drive is making a clucking noise if you can imagine. When it does that noise Vista shows it on my computer but same second throws it off the list. And that repeats itself until Explorer freezes. And I can see the drive for 1sec in the Computer Management -> Drives section and then it dissapears again.

I'm desperate for help since I have alot of school data on it.

With respect,
Žan

 

[kimsland]

Usually this means the drive has died

Recovery Software

Try this one: http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm
It is free for up to four folder down, ie
E:\Documents and Setting\UserName\My Documents\My Pictures
1,2,3,4 folders down

Here are a lot free ones to choose from
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads38.html

 

[SNGX1275]

That drive is toast man. If you are lucky kimsland's link will help, but I suspect not if it clunks.

I know its too late now, but never store school work in only 1 place. I'm speaking from expierence and now 6 years of schooling.

Personally I keep all my school work in a Dropbox dir, I figure between 2 physical computers sharing that dropbox and their online file storage that I am pretty safe.

 

[zGornjak]

Thanks for replies!

There is one problem though. How can I recover data from a drive that is not on the list?

Like I said, it pops up on the list and goes off it in the same second. Repeats itself until explorer freezes.

Ps. Thanks for the DropBox link! I'll give it a shot.