WD MyBook not mounting

[Zexel]

I have a Western Digital MyBook Essentials 2.0 1 TB external hard drive. It's been running fine for the past 2 or 3 years now, but all of a sudden it's stop mounting in OS X. I'm running Lion right now, and it's worked fine in it up until today. Oddly enough, I did use the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant to create a recovery partition this same drive the night before. Would this have totally ruined the hard drive? It's formatted as FAT32.

Like I said the hard drive doesn't mount in OS X and it's not recognized in Windows. When I go to the Disk Utility in OS X, it does show up there, but I can't do anything with it. Can't verify the disk or repair it. I've tried using WD's disk verifying tool in Windows and it passed both the quick check and the 11 hour extended check with no problems.

And I have done the simple things like trying it in different USB ports, restarting the computer, using different USB cords, unplugging and replugging the hard drive.

Any suggestions? If possible, I would like to retain the data on the drive of course.

 

[JimBobBennett]

Sounds like it could be dead - a lifespan of 3 years is expected for a hard disk, longer does happen but shouldn't be relied upon.
Also, the MyBooks have a reputation for not being the most reliable. I know a few people who have had them fail (me included).

Next time a Raid-5 multi drive setup to mitigate drive failure might be a worthwhile investment. Since I lost a few photos on my MyBook I now don't use any single disk setup for anything thats not back up on another drive.

Good luck though, I hope its not hosed. Maybe try DiskWarrior?

 

[Zexel]

Yeah I was thinking about DiskWarrior. I'm trying MiniTool right now. It's doing a full scan that's going to take another 22 hours. It's really frustrating because the drive spins up, the status lights blink when the drive is being accessed, it just won't mount! Grrr..

But yeah...I might need to get a Drobo or something next.