As the old saying goes "You only lose what you didn't backup". That's especially true for external hard disks, that are so prone to failures and thus utterly unsuited to store the only copy of important stuff.
That being said, there are 2 things you can do yourself:
1. See what Disk Management (a program in Windows) says about the disk. If it can't find the disk, go to step 2. If it says something like "unallocated" or "unformatted" try data recovery software like RECUVA or GETDATABACK (see one of top posts in this forum "lost and found"; read all!)
2. Take the disk out and mount it in another enclosure. With some luck, it's only the electronics in the enclosure that's somehow damaged and the disk is OK and will function in a new enclosure.
If both steps fail, it's time to send your disk to a data recovery company and pay the bill. That "weird sound" isn't promising and might make it rather expensive. Think USD 1000.
Kees
Hi,
yestreday, I used PC and connected my WD 500G HDD. I am stupid, I know. Anyways, when I used them, the USB- the side of HDD, not PC, was removed accidentally. I reconnected it soon, but it was not respond at all. I tried to use other computers, both PC, and Mac, but some said it is not respond, or said "Searching preconfigured driver folders" forever. Now I do not have my own laptop, because it also has probelem and I sent it to be fixed. I have bunch of important stuffs in this HDD, do you know how to resolve this issue in stead of endanger the memories?
My HDD's light is on when I connect to PC.
My HDD has kinda weird sound when I connect, but its gonna be stooped in seconds.
My HDD cannot show up in "my computers".
Please help me!!

Chowhound
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