Western Digital External Hard Drive Can't Be Read

[QuickTimePlaya]

I have a PowerBook G4 from 2002, running OS X 10.3.9. I have TONS of files on a Western Digital external hard drive, model WD1200B006-RNN, purchased in 2004. This hard drive was working perfectly well until Fall 2008, when my MP3's that are on it would occasionally freeze and stop playing in iTunes. But I was able to access the hard drive with no issues, and the icon would appear on the desktop every time I plugged the firewire into the port.

Well, today I tried connecting the hard drive after not using it in about 6 months. I plugged in the power cable and then connected the firewire into the computer before turning the computer on. I then turned the computer on, and the hard drive then did something its never done before: it started making "struggling" and clicking noises, and one of the lights on the front that is normally green was flashing red. After about 10 minutes of enduring this noise, an error message appeared on the computer screen that said something like, "This device has no volumes Mac OS can read. Click "continue" to continue using it." I clicked the "continue" button and the error message window disapeared, but nothing else happened. No hard drive icon appeared on the desktop. The hard drive eventually stopped making noises and now one of the two lights on the front is green, but the other light is not lit up.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to try and solve this problem myself??? How much would it cost if I had to get this hard drive/problem professionally repaired? I really need the files on this hard drive! My entire music collection that took me DECADES to compile is on it! Help!!!

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Sounds like the hard drive is dead -- typically, they don't repair drives when they fail, they just replace them.

If the data on the hard drive is ultra-important, you can try a professional data recovery service like drivesavers.com, but be aware that data recovery is not inexpensive -- expect to pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars up into the thousands of dollars.

Your best (and cheapest) bet would be to purchase a new hard drive (I've got 4 of the Western Digital 1.0TB "Elements" drives, about $110), scrap the broken one, and restore the data from the backups that you keep.

Sometimes you can get a hard drive like this working just long enough to pull some data off of it. If the problem is that the read/write head is brcoming stuck on the platters, then you can throw the drive in an airtight freezer bag, throw the drive in the freezer for about an hour, take it out and immediately hook it up and turn it on. If the drive mounts, copy that data off as quickly as possible. This method only works for stuck read/write heads (the freezing action causes the metal parts to ever-so-slightly contract, possibly freeing anything that's stuck), and it won't cause any damage to the drive (save for condensation -- hence the airtight bag), and it may be worth a shot.