WD MY BOOK - Not mounting to desktop

Please help, I have asked friends and nobody can find a solution…

I have a Western Digital “My Book” external hard drive that will not mount to MAC or PC machines. 

**Using Mac Book Pro. OS X 10.6.4

  • Immediately after connecting the external HD, I get a pop up window that reads, “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.”
  • I am have used Firewire 800 port & USB. Both ports work for with other external devices.
  • The drive DOES show up in Disk utility. But not on my desk top.
  • I have tried mounting the external disk through Disk Utility, and it does not mount. 
  • I have tried properly ejecting the external disk in Disk Utility, and it does not eject. The hard drive “Thinks” for a moment, then returns to a normal state. The drive never disappears from the Disk Utility. 
  • I have tried verifying the external disk through Disk Utility: It immediately stops with an Error in red. The error states, “This disk needs to be repaired.”
  • I have tried repairing the external disk through Disk Utility: It immediately stops with an Error in red. The error states, “Disk Utility can’t repair this disk.” Then a drop down box prompts me to back up as many files as possible and reformat the disk. 
  • In Disk Utility–>Info, the Hard drive states all correct information regarding connection Bus, Name and Type. It even states the HD is MS-DOS (FAT-16) formatted, and writable. Under Mount Point, its correctly states the hard drive in “Not Mounted”. 

**Using PC towers

  • Immediately after connecting the external HD, I get a pop up window that reads, "The disk you inserted in not readable by this computer. Then I get a prompt to reformat. 

I would erase and reformat but I have a movie project on this hard drive and can not afford to erase this footage. 

I have tried using DISK WARRIOR, but DW will not work because the first thing you have to do is select the failed drive. Since the WD HD has not failed, I am unable to use DW to solve my problem. 

I’m hopping someone out there can save my live along with my movie. 

My sincerest thanks,

Tim

You can search for a couple of data recovery program and scan the HDD to recover the files.