As of two days ago my external Western Digital hard drive (WD2500JB) was working perfectly without problem. Last night when I went to save a file to it I noticed it wasn't showing up in My Computer. I checked all connections and everything was connected correctly. The blue LED's at the front of the case were powered on, but no activity could be heard. I've taken the drive out of it's case and installed it in both of my desktops. It was not recognized on either computer. All of my iTunes data was on that drive. Some of it can be retrieved from my iPod as well as audio CDs, but a majority of it was from the iTunes Store. The drive is less than a year old. I have everything plugged into surge protectors. My other external drive as well as my Ipod, which have been connected for several days, still work as well as my Router, etc. I'm assuming nothing can be done without spending excessive money on data recovery. Any ideas on what to do would be great.If you are looking at a crashed drive ... as LONG as the drive spins up and the control board is not totally hosed, you can use data recovery software such as getdataback http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-products.htm Your external HD btw should be Fat32 from factory. If you formatted it to NTFS you will need the NTFS version to recover your data.

Recover even when Windows doesn't recognize the drive-
GetDataBack can even recover your data when the drive is no longer recognized by Windows. It can likewise be used even if all directory information - not just the root directory- is missing.
The problem isn't just that Windows won't recognize the drive, it's that it won't even power up. I think the motor has seized. I don't here anything when I hit the power button on the enclosure.The best thing you can do at this point would be to cross reference the serial # thru WD's database and find out which controller card was used in that drive.
Then try to locate one that's a close enough match.
I've had some success using eBay for this but this is far from a recommendation....I've got good news and bad news. I tried what you said. I obtained a near identical drive from eBay. I than swapped the controller boards. After I put the drive back into the case I connected it up to the adapter and computer. I pressed the power button on the case and what do you know the drive starts spinning. What's the bad news? Well, the drive just continued to make a clicking noise. After about ten seconds the computer just shut off and restarted. I read online that if the controller board isn't a 100% compatible that the drive won't operate correctly. I guess that's what I have now. At least it seems that the motor inside works and that the platters don't appear damaged. I guess I'll start saving up money so I can send the drive in for recovery.Quote from: lordvader781 on August 08, 2008, 09:02:26 PM

Well, the drive just continued to make a clicking noise.

Click of death on start-up - This occurs at start up, where the drive attempts to align to the start of the disk and read the drive profile and Master Boot Record/Bootstrap/Boot Sector.

Bad Head during use - Head failure during use, sometimes cause by a bad spot on disk.

Bad Head

Head Crash - Head failure, caused by the head coming into contact with the disk.

Head Phaser Blast - Head failure, caused by the head getting stuck to the disk.

Bad Spindle Bearings/Motor - Spindle failure, caused by spindle motor or bearings.