Dysfunctional external hard drive

for two days now, i have been unable to access my WD external hard drive. once i plug it to the laptop, there is the normal sound you get when you plug an external device to the system, however, i never see the external drive to access. The only thing i see is CD drive (G), apart from the DVD RW drive (E). Please what could be the problem and how may i resolve this?

Did you replace the USB cable? Is your hard drive detected within Windows Disk Management?

How to access Disk Management in Windows to manage hard drives

‎The hard drive is detected in disk management window, I have not replaced the USB. The hard drive is working extremely slowly, even when I try to copy a file from the hard drive or delete a file, it does everything at a painfully slow speed.From: TrancerSent: Tuesday, November 24, 2015 7:46 PMTo: joe_boy03@yahoo.co.ukReply To: WD CommunitySubject: [WD Community] [WD External Drives/External Drives for PC] Dysfunctional external hard drive