i have a 500gb external hard drive “my book essential” WD and my computer runs on windows xp.
i stuffed 100gb of files in this thing and unplugged it. when i plugged it back in, the hard drive is spinning and it just sits there blinking its light and this goes on for hours. i turned it off and turned it back on and has the same results. so i plug it into a different computer and its the same thing.
this thing came straight out the box brand new. im using the usb cable and plug adaptor it came with.
wd shows up on disk management. thats all i can come up with any help is welcome.
Hello,
If the drive shows in Disk Management it is possible that the partition is corrupted and you will have to format the drive in order to use it again. However, before trying that I recommend that you make sure the drive is plugged in directly into a wall outlet. Sometimes a power strip or surge protector might be the cause of this issue.
hi, i plugged it into the wall sadly, its still the same. 
is there anyway i can recover whats left of what i have put in here?
i did not make backup of my backup i kinda put all my trust into this thing thinking nothing would go wrong.
thanks for the reply btw…
Hi, did you tried checking if the drive is recognized on the disk management window?
How to access Disk Management in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 to manage hard drives
hi, ok when i turn on the wd drive it freezes the start menu and it just sits there blinking.
so…then i turn off the drive and open the disk managment first. then i plugged in the wd drive and it doesn’t show up… again it just sits there blinking. im not sure if its not showing up because it freezing itself when i turn it on or maybe other reasons.
Hello again, it seem that unfortunately the My Book is faulty and needs to be replaced. If you need to recover your files, you can contact any of the data recovery companies on the WD support page, some of them offer a free evaluation of your drive.
Data Recovery Partners
http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp?wdc_lang=en
To replace your My Book you can follow the steps from the following link.
How to get an RMA, (Return Merchandise Authorization) or replace a defective product under warranty
