WD50000 not connecting with computer

[lisa mcwhorter]

Hi, I have a WD5000 that has suddenly stopped connecting to my desktop and also laptop. I tried a new USB cord (purchased new from Best Buy) and it is still not working. The yellow light goes on, but I no longer see the drive listed. I tried reinstalling the driver from western digitals website but when I check under devices & printers or device manager, it shows me "unknown device" with a yellow ! mark in a triangle. I tried to troubleshoot it but the error is always the same... "no driver found". I have tried connecting to my Windows Vista desktop, Windows 7 desktop and my Windows 7 laptop and it is not working on any of them. Of course it has not been backed up-- and the only thing I care about right now is recovering the data off of the external hard drive. Can someone help? Thanks!

 

[Ectech]

This usually indicates the drive controller within the external drive is failing. If you have important data on that drive it's best to disassemble the enclosure and purchase an external drive enclosure.

I've had several WD drive's fail on me sooner than I thought. Now I try to say with Seagate.