Western Digital external hard drive stopped working

[albertrob]

Hi,
My Western Digital external hard drive just stopped working. There was no fall or energy issues as far as I know. It was perfect until yesterday, but today it keeps flashing a white light in front of it very quickly (each 1 or 2 seconds). Every blinking is accompanied by an intern spinning sound.

The power button also stopped working, and pressing it does nothing. My Mac Pro won't recognize the hard drive anymore, and it doesn't show up on Finder or Disk Utility. It looks like the device is frozen.

I tried changing the usb port, changing the outlet and reseting the computer, but nothing worked. I couldn't check for problems via third part software or check for firmware or driver updates because I have no access to the device whatsoever, as my Mac doesn't show it anywhere.

I can't remember the model of the hard drive, unfortunately. I bought it back in 2009. It looks like an older version of the "My Book Studio", but instead of just a little dot in the front of it, it has an oval lightened shape. (the one that keeps blinking).

I am kind of desperate because a lot of my work stuff is there! Please help!
Thanks folks

Mac Pro Quad Core Intel Xeon/OS 10.7 / 16Gb Ram / 1TB internal drive / 1TB + 1TB external drive

 

[Tmagic650]

Hard drives go bad for no apparent reason, especially WD's... If it isn't detected, there's not much you can do. You might try the freezer trick. Put the drive in a freezer over night, remove it and try accessing it immediately

 

[Cycloid Torus]

"Not detected" - controller board on HD or the USB enclosure electronics - may not be the mechanical side, which means possibly the disk is still good. If external power, could be failure in that. Connection wires - could be a problem there.

Need to know what it is - manufacturer, model, etc. Picture can help. Short video might give more.

Maybe you can get it working with a new external power source or a new cable. Maybe you can extract the HD. Maybe you can connect HD directly or put it in a new enclosure. Then maybe you can see the data and extract it.

You said "desperate because a lot of my work stuff" - maybe you want a data recovery expert.

We are kind of 'blind' because you provide all of our information at this point ("Plato's cave").