1 TB Elements external hd no longer detected

I have a WD Elements SE 1 TB external hard disk that I purchased about 3 years ago.  This morning the computer no longer detected it once connected.  Of course, I have lots of important data on the hd that I need to access.  Here’s what I’ve done so far & results.

Note that this drive worked fine when last used 2 days ago.  I am using approx 700 Gb of the 1 TB drive.

When I plug the USB cable into the HD & laptop,  I get a rapidly flashing LED indicator light on the external hd.  Power is getting to the drive and I can hear/feel it spinning up.  However, the OS does not detect the drive and it does not appear mounted.    Also, all autorun features are disabled in the system settings.  I have tried this using different usb cables and tried it on different laptops running Win7 and Ubuntu Linux.  In Windows, it does not appear in Disk Management under Computer Management.  In Linux, it does not appear under fdisk -l or lsusb or lsblk.

In Windows, I’ve downloaded USB Device Tree Viewer and Western Digital’s Data Lifeguard application.  They do not show the drive either.

However, after leaving the external hd plugged in for about 5 minutes, it ceases to spin and the LED indicator light goes solid.  Around this point it tends to show up in select applications but it does not show up mounted in the OS and I am not able to access any data.  

Here’s the log excerpt from USB Device Tree Viewer:

========================== My Computer ==========================
Operating System : 6.1 Build 7600 SP0 type=1 suite=100 Win32
Computer Name : SONY-PC
Admin previleges : yes
UsbTreeView version : 2.3.2.0 (Win32)
USB Host Controllers : 8
USB Root Hubs : 8
USB Standard Hubs : 0
USB Peripheral Devices : 3

=========================== USB Port4 ===========================
Connection Status : Device is connected
Port Chain : 7-4
======================== USB Device ========================
+++++++++++++++++ Device Information ++++++++++++++++++
Device Description : USB Mass Storage Device
Device ID : USB\VID_1058&PID_1023\575835314331304338343334
Driver KeyName : {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}\0087
Driver : C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\USBSTOR.SYS (Version: 6.1.7600.16385 Date: 2009-07-13)
Legacy BusType : PNPBus
Class : USB
Service : USBSTOR
Enumerator : USB
Location Info : Port_#0004.Hub_#0008
Location IDs : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1D07)#USBROOT(0)#USB(4)
Container ID : {fd6e6f7d-b87d-544a-8a58-105cbe94e2be}
Manufacturer Info : Compatible USB storage device
Capabilities : Removable, UniqueID, RawDeviceOK, SurpriseRemovalOK
Address : 4
Problem Code : 0
Power State : D0 (supported: D0, D3, wake from D0)
Child Device 1 : Disk drive
Device ID : USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_WD&PROD_ELEMENTS_1023&REV_2005\575835314331304338343334&0
Class : DiskDrive
Volume : \\?\Volume{092c7adb-23a6-11e3-8527-001dba89a93f}\
Kernel Name : \Device\HarddiskVolume6
Mountpoint : G:\
---------------- Connection Information ---------------
Connection Index : 0x04
Connection Status : 0x01 (DeviceConnected)
Current Config Value : 0x01
Device Address : 0x02
Is Hub : 0x00 (no)
Number Of Open Pipes : 0x02 (2)
Device Bus Speed : 0x02 (High-Speed)
Pipe0ScheduleOffset : 0x00 (0)
Pipe1ScheduleOffset : 0x00 (0)
------------------ Device Descriptor ------------------
bLength : 0x12 (18 bytes)
bDescriptorType : 0x01 (Device Descriptor)
bcdUSB : 0x200 (USB Version 2.00)
bDeviceClass : 0x00 (defined by the interface descriptors)
bDeviceSubClass : 0x00
bDeviceProtocol : 0x00
bMaxPacketSize0 : 0x40 (64 bytes)
idVendor : 0x1058 (Western Digital Technologies, Inc.)
idProduct : 0x1023
bcdDevice : 0x2005
iManufacturer : 0x01
Language 0x0409 : "Western Digital"
iProduct : 0x02
Language 0x0409 : "Elements 1023"
iSerialNumber : 0x03
Language 0x0409 : "575835314331304338343334"
bNumConfigurations : 0x01
-------------- Configuration Descriptor ---------------
bLength : 0x09 (9 bytes)
bDescriptorType : 0x02 (Configuration Descriptor)
wTotalLength : 0x0020 (32 bytes)
bNumInterfaces : 0x01
bConfigurationValue : 0x01
iConfiguration : 0x00
bmAttributes : 0x80 (Bus Powered)
MaxPower : 0xFA (500 mA)
---------------- Interface Descriptor -----------------
bLength : 0x09 (9 bytes)
bDescriptorType : 0x04 (Interface Descriptor)
bInterfaceNumber : 0x00
bAlternateSetting : 0x00
bNumEndpoints : 0x02
bInterfaceClass : 0x08 (Mass Storage)
bInterfaceSubClass : 0x06 (SCSI transparent command set)
bInterfaceProtocol : 0x50 (Bulk­Only Transport)
iInterface : 0x00
----------------- Endpoint Descriptor -----------------
bLength : 0x07 (7 bytes)
bDescriptorType : 0x05 (Endpoint Descriptor)
bEndpointAddress : 0x81 (Direction=IN EndpointID=1)
bmAttributes : 0x02 (TransferType=Bulk)
wMaxPacketSize : 0x200 (max 512 bytes)
bInterval : 0x00 (never NAKs)
----------------- Endpoint Descriptor -----------------
bLength : 0x07 (7 bytes)
bDescriptorType : 0x05 (Endpoint Descriptor)
bEndpointAddress : 0x02 (Direction=OUT EndpointID=2)
bmAttributes : 0x02 (TransferType=Bulk)
wMaxPacketSize : 0x200 (max 512 bytes)
bInterval : 0x00 (never NAKs)

Here’s a snapshot from WD Data LifeGuard after the drive has been “semi-detected”.  By this I mean that it sort of shows up, but not in Windows and data is not acccessible.  Note how LifeGuard sees the logical drive (G:/) with no data, but not display the physical drive.  A scan cannot be attempted as there is ‘no’ physical drive.

Lifeguard.png

Originally I though this was an MBR issue but now I’m thinking that something internal has failed within the external drive.  My objective is to get access to the (years of) data contained on the drive.  Any suggestions?

Edit: I forgot to add that after about 10 min of spinning like this, the drive stops spinning and the LED indicator goes to a slow flash (1 sec on/1 sec off) which the manual indicates is System Stanby.

Hi anjp11, I would call tech support directly for assistance on your case. You might also want to check the list of recommended data recovery companies by WD.

http://support.wdc.com/contact/contact.asp?lang=en

http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp?wdc_lang=en