May I have advice on getting WD Essentials 1110 to work on new PC? Thank you

Please help me re- install my Western Digital My Book Essential 1110 in new PC.   I see the WD  in “My Computer” but when I click on it I get “Drive is not accessible.  The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.”  When I changed my USB2 cable, I get a dialog box that I need to  format the disc.  I got into the page with three files (Extras, User Manuals, and WD SmartWare) and two applications ( Unlock and WD Smartware) a “What is This” .  I  tried to install clicing on the WD SmartWare and it treis to install and then a dialog box that says  “No writable WD SmartWare partition found.” 

 What do I need to do to access my WD external drive files? ….and to Xfer more files?  Thank you.

You need to reformat the drive. Those are applications that came with the drive you can download them later if you want to use them.

Will I lose the data on my WD if I do this reformating?  THank you.

Yes

Ouch…  I do not want to lose my data.  It is the whole reason I bought / used WD for back up. 

Is there any way that I can retrieve my personal data from the WD?

Thank you

Sorry about that. Because when the computer asked you to reformat the drive already. Check this link for WD data recovery partners http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp?wdc_lang=en

You might try booting from a Linux Live CD sometimes you can access a drive that way. A backup means 2 copies in different locations.

Joe