"I've found the drive in my disk utility, but it gives me no options to repair it or do anything and claims it has 0 bytes.
I did briefly manage to access the drive when plugging it into a different usb port, but since then, nothing.
Is the disk well and truly dead?
If so, is there any way I can recover my data from it?"
As the poster immediately ahead of this one said, don't write anything to that disk until you get your data from it.
You have to first ascertain exactly what has failed on you.
- It could be only the file system on the drive (drive and enclosure ok)
- It could be a problem with the enclosre (drive and file system ok)
- It could a problem with the _drive_ (enclosure is ok, but file system can't be accessed because drive is bad)
You said the drive is two years old.
Is it now "out of warranty"?
If so, you might consider opening the enclosure, and taking the drive itself out and seeing if you can try an alternate connection method to the computer.
I suggest you consider buying one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, pick one that you like best)
A USB/SATA dock is going to be a VERY useful tool if you want a shot at getting your data back.
I also suggest you buy a new "bare drive" of equal (or greater) capacity than the external drive you have now. Newegg.com is a good source (I recommend Seagate drives). You are going to want another drive ANYWAY, because you can't trust the WD drive with your data any more.
I also suggest you download this:
http://www.cleverfiles.com/
Granted, this is a beta for the upcoming "Disk Drill" data recovery software, but it may allow you to recover your data free.
There are other quality data recovery apps out there, but they are pay-for. Two of the best are "DataRescue3" and "Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery".
Hope this gives some info to get you started.
It may be only a simple problem, perhaps corrected by putting the drive into another enclosure or the drive dock mentioned above.
It may be more complicated, such as a corrupted file system. In that case, it takes more work, time, and learning effort. But data can be "gotten back"....
