My Book Essential 3TB External Hard Dive not showing in My Computer

Portable Drives My Passport
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I have a My Book Essential 3TB External Hard Dive and recently it stopped showing up in My Computer.  The device says it is connected, but it does not show up in the my computer section.  I have gone through a few checks to see if the hard drive is working properly and it does not look good.  

I ran the data lifeguard diagnostics and it failed.  I do not have the results on me, but from what I remember it came back with a status code = 03 and some sort of SERVO error.  As of right now the hard drive does not say it is availble any more in data lifeguard diagnostics.  I disconnected and reconnected  the hard drive and now it does not even show up in that any more.  

Before that happened I was able to run SpeedFan and ran a in-depth online analysis and the error I got was a blocking issue.  The dive used to show up in Disk Management, but I was unable to change the drive letter.  Now when I open disk management it recognizes the drive, but gives me an I/O error.

 I have tried different cords and connecting to different computers and that did not fix the issue.  So like I said I have feeling that the drive failed and basically want to know if there is any way to get the files off of the drive.  I will use a data recovery service as a last resort because I would rather not pay $500-$1000+ to retrieve the data.  Is there any fix that could help me out or am I sorry out of luck.

As for the hard drive itself it has rarely been move.  The hard drive is not even a year old (bought in March, started using in April).  I only use it to store extra file from my my laptop, so the hard drive is only on while transfering files.  The  hard drive  stopped working suddenly and I had no problems up until this date.  

When I plugged the hard drive in it makes a clicking sound and it sounds like the hard drive is reving up, but it doesn’t quite get there.  The clicking and the other noises stop after about  3-5 minutes.  The hard drive is no longer running and I have blinking white light.  The light blinks at a constant rate of about a blink a second.

The drive has never been dropped and has been well taken care of so this was kind of sudden.  If there is any way to retrieve the data that would be great as I had over 2TB of data on it.  Even if there is a way to just see the file  so I know which one I need to try and get again.

So any help is appreciated like a solution to recovering my data, repairing my hard drive, or what exactly went wrong with my hard drive.

I am running Win 7 and using the WD My Book Essential 3TB External Hard Dive model: WDBACW0030HBK-NESN

If any other info is need I will try to provide it.

Thanks

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If the unit failed the DLG test, will be better if you contact WD Support

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

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If you’re brave you can take the drive out of the enclosure and use a USB/SATA/IDE cable to see if the drive itself is still good. Could just be an issue with the enclousre or the built-in software. Most of these drives are easy to take apart, and all you’d have to do is connect the USB/SATA/IDE cable to the bare drive.

I just posted about my USB 3.0 drive not being recognized by the copmute via USB 3.0 connection unless I turn the drive on first, sounds dumb but if your drive has a power switch turn the drive on first before you connect it to the computer, see what happens.

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Thanks guys for the replies.

I contact customer service and they just told me that the warranty does not cover data recovery and nothing about the problem itself.  I sent a reply seeing if they know the cause of the problem and I am awaiting a reply.

@ KAtodog

I am not brave enough yet to take the drive apart yet as the hard drive is still under warranty and if I send it in then I can get a new drive.  As for the power thing I have tried just about every combination with the cords and the power and it is just the  same thing.  The drive powers up then it starts making these clicking noises like something is catching on something, and a softer sound is that the drive sound like it is revving up, then it dies or whimpers out.  This clicking cycle last for about 2-5 minutes then it stops and the drive is completely silent.  If someone knows exactly what is wrong with the drive and that is can be fixed then I might consider taking it out of its enclosure.

Has anyone else experience a problem like mine and knows what the cause was and how to fix it?