I have a WD 1.5 terabyte hard drive.  Recently, when I plug it in, I hear the machinations inside rev up, follwed by some unusual clicking sounds, and then it winds down and turns off.  Is there any hope I can have this fixed?  How would I do that?If it's still under warranty, WD will replace it.The clicking sounds are the key - the drive is shot.I just checkd: warranty expired last NOVEMBER 

By the sounds of your response, it seems my HD is shot. How can I retrieve my stuff on it?You can try slaving it
http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/04/23/how-to-slave-hard-drive/Thanks for the link. I'll have to investigate.
I haven't had the HD that long.  Why would it go belly up like that?  And this is the backup HD for my photos and such. I'm confused. Didn't WD drives have a 5 year warranty until very recently (around 2011?) There weren't any 1.5 TB drives for sale 6 years ago, were there? Hard drives are mechanical devices with moving parts. They wear out. You don't have to do anything to them for that to happen. Statistically most will last maybe 7 to 10 years, but some will last much less and some much more. That's why backups are important. Salmon is correct...
Up til this year WD's had 5 year warranties...they've scaled it back to 3 now.Maybe they were looking at the warranty from the retailer themselves? (or the "time for EXCHANGES" guff) Those are usually ridiculously short terms.

I just went to the WD website:  http://support.wdc.com/warranty/index_end.asp?lang=en

I clicked on Warranty Check and then typed in the serial number.  They said it was expired.  I don't remember when I bought it.  I guess times flies (3 years) when you're having fun.

This is the first time I had an external HD stop working.  Leaves me a bit shaky about backing up important files on it but then, what would be the alternative besides burning a gazillion DVD's? Quote from: Allan on June 23, 2012, 01:07:45 PM

You can try slaving it
http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/04/23/how-to-slave-hard-drive/

Since my HD starts up, clicks (I just read about the click of death) and then turns off, it doesn't look like I would be able to slave it.  I've read that trying to turn it on again with physical problems can make it worse.

Anyone know a reputable and reasonable data recovery service?

I've actually been pretty successful doing data recovery off of drives that exhibit these symptoms...
The key is to have the Master PC completely set up and ready to start copying data...
That means having it booted...having all unneccessary apps turned off...and having plenty of free space on any partition/drive you are copying to all set to go before even attempting to connect the faulty HDD...

P.S. TeraCopy will boost your copy speeds by about a 1/3...
No guarantees...but this is how i've always prepared.