WD Elements 500 Gig External Hard Drive not being recognized on laptop

I have tried data recovery software  and it doesn’t work since the drive itself can not be picked up by my laptop. The Data Lifeguard Diagnostic seems complicated. I’ve found this: http://www.westerndigitalrecovery.net/ but I am skeptical when it comes to using programs like these. Has anyone else used this program to recover a dead WD Hard Drive? Does the program work?