Problem with external hard drive

Have you tried (paid software) Disk Warrior?

Or bring it to Apple Store and have it checked out?

 

Could this be caused by the issues that WD has having with their drive software? I know that they issues a statement in regards to possibly losing data - take a look at their site as your drive / software may need an update.

 

Sounds like you could be using the WD Turbo software. You can remove it with a risk of losing data though. If you don't have the WD drivers installed or you need the uninstaller, visit their site for up to date information.

 

If you initially used the quick formatter, or left the drive as is when you bought it, you may be suffering the same issues as many here. My two 2TB drives are fine but I formatted them HTFS when I put them into new enclosures

 

Wd5000h1u-00 problems

2 weeks ago my ext hard drive could work. I may have unplugged my mac which was still connected to the ext hard drive. Now it isnt working. It doesnt light up, no sounds at all, unplugged and plugged it several time and nothing. It's not vibrating at all, its cold and no activity. What do i do to recover the data. I need the date inside. Thanks

 

The WD drive is about 2 years old, is this correct?

If it's out-of-warranty, my suggestion would be to try this:

Open the case and take the drive itself OUT of the case.

Assuming that the "bare drive" has a standard "SATA" type connector (see note below), I would suggest you get a USB3/SATA docking station. To see what these are, go to amazon.com and enter "usb sata dock" in the search area, and you will get many choices. These are very affordable (typically, less than $25), and will prove to be a very useful device in your Mac future.

One that would work (again, assuming the drive has a SATA connector) is this:
http://plugable.com/products/USB3-SATA-U3

Once you have the dock, put the drive inside, and connect to the Mac, and turn it on.

Then you should hear/see
1. The drive should "spin up" in the dock
2. The drive should mount on the desktop

If the drive does not spin up, sounds like a hardware failure.

If the drive spins up, but doesn't mount on the desktop, could be corrupted directory that prevents it from mounting. If this is the case, and there are no hardware problems, the data on the drive may STILL BE RECOVERABLE.

If you do the above, and can get this far, report back and we'll take it from there.

Note:
WD is notorious for NOT using a standard SATA type connector for some of their pre-packaged external drives. You're going to have to open the case and examine the drive to know whether this is true for your situation or not.