Maxtor 500Gb external hard drive not recognized

[Mugambo]

This Maxtor 500Gb external hard drive is not being recognized by my macbook!
I have a lot of data on it.
It makes a scrubbing sound while rotating. Continues it for 30 seconds and stops.
Did not drop or anything.
The external hard drive powers up but isn't recognized.

Is there anyway I can recover all the data or at least make it recognizable?

Any help will be deeply appreciated!
Thank You

 

[iLog.Genius]

Do you have another computer that you can test it on? It could be the HDD failing. The format of the HDD shouldn't be a problem, OS X can read NTFS but can't write to it without 3rd party software.

 

[Mugambo]

I tried connecting it to a PC with XP and a Dell Inspiron Laptop with Vista.

No luck.



Not recognizing anywhere!!

 

[iLog.Genius]

I tried connecting it to a PC with XP and a Dell Inspiron Laptop with Vista.

No luck.



Not recognizing anywhere!!

I think you have your answer. Either the controller for the external HDD has gone bad or the HDD itself has gone bad. You can try to use 3rd party recovery software but can't really guarantee anything.

 

[Kyeris]

If you have a desktop computer or an external harddrive bay (or your friend), you could pull the harddrive out of the enclosure and stick it in either one to test out.

You can find cheap SATA enclosures on Newegg for $16 or so if you really need to try and get the data off the harddrive. No guarantee that this will work though, it could be the HD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817193038 - cheapest one I see ($14.99)