WD MyBook external hard drive just died on me...

[Btros]

I plugged it into my computer, opened it up as usual. Was going to delete some stuff to free space. Tried to open a folder and it hung up for a while. Then the window just closed and it said I did not eject the disc properly. Plugged it back in and my computer sees it, but when I open it, it says 0 files, 3.84GB available (out of 500). Tried unplugging from power and connecting again, same thing.

Am I screwed? Or is there a way to fix this, anyone know?

 

[Pryomancer]

How old is it?
Has it shown any signs of going wrong recently?
What type of environment does it usually reside in? i.e. does it get carried around in a bag or is it left on your desk all day.

 

[Btros]

How old is it?
Has it shown any signs of going wrong recently?
What type of environment does it usually reside in? i.e. does it get carried around in a bag or is it left on your desk all day.

About 3 years old.
Did not show any hint of anything wrong recently, just happened suddenly.
It sits on my desk all day, hasn't moved in probably 6 months.

I tried unplugging everything again and this time plugged it in with firewire. A window popped up saying something like "Mac OS cannot repair this disc. You can view or copy files but cannot delete. You should back up data as soon as possible." Now I can see the folders but I'm afraid to click on anything.

I guess I can run out and get another one but I can't really afford a new 1TB right now.

 

[SoulTerror]

Maybe try rebooting your computer.

 

[Isthmus]

Try adding a lightweight linux distro to a thumbdrive, running that live (don't install it to your system) and accessing that hard drive through linux, you should be able to recover your files. Some linux live distros (especially Puppy), have excellent recovery tools designed specifically to recover files from corrupted drives (especially those formatted to NTFS).

Once you find your files, pull them off your drive, then reformat the entire drive. Then move your files back. It should work properly now.

 

[gcobb]

It sounds like it lost the partition table info. But I've seen several Mybooks just quit randomly when I worked elsewhere.