I am so fucked

[Liesje]

I've got a WD Passport external USB hard drive. It's just months old, and I can't read from it. I was using it fine yesterday, I read/wrote files I was organizing all night long. I disconnected it and put my laptop in Standby. Today I got a new printer, so I plugged in a USB hub. I plugged the Passport into the hub and it just clicked. I panicked, but then realized it's powered via USB and probably does not appreciate the hub. I switched it to the USB port I usually use and I saw its light go on and can feel it vibrating like it usually does. However, it showed up in My Computer as Removable Disk (E: ), but usually it's called WD Passport (E: ). When I tried to open it, it said to insert the disk. The Disk Management said "No media". I clicked the USB icon in the System Tray, stopped the device, and unplugged it. Plugged it back in - same thing. I thought maybe all the other USB crap I plugged in was interfering, so I changed the drive letter for the Passport. Now, it doesn't show up in My Computer at all, or in Disk Management in My Computer. The thing is powered on and running, but I can't read it.

I'm so ticked because the reason I plugged it in was to backup everything onto this computer's drive. Everything is only on the Passport right now because my laptop drive crashed and I just finished replacing it and reinstalling everything.

I did a System Restore to yesterday, the last time it worked, and nothing. I plug it into Phil's computer, and nothing.

I downloaded this program called GetDataBack, which says it can restore data from a drive the OS no longer recognizes, but I don't get how to tell the program where to scan for data. It's a free trial so if it finds what I need, I can pay to get the writable version.

I don't understand what the hell happened. The device hasn't moved from the desk and worked flawlessly yesterday. It hasn't even been plugged in. I looks, feels, and sounds like normal, but my computer won't touch it.

I'm not sure whether to try a different data recovery program, or if I need to fix something on the computer, or if there's any other way to rip the drive open and connect it differently to the computer.

 

[Tiger Edge]

This is why I hate dealing with USB ports. My laptop stopped recognizing my iPod a few months back. And my house computer rarely recognizes anything plugged into it.
I hope someone has an answer for you because that really, really sucks.

 

[Liesje]

Update: My POS laptop does recognize my crappy little USB stick-o-memory, so I suppose that means the port itself is fine.

I just don't want to have to pay Geek Squad....

I WAS GOING TO BUY A SECOND DRIVE!!

 

[Liesje]

It's working now

I put it in Phil's computer again (b/c he has USB 2.0) and it started working. I think it's going to work in mine, but if not I quick copied everything to Phil's drive.

 

[Tiger Edge]

 

[tuwie]

o thankgoodness .
i'm so happy for you.
that also really scared me because all my precious U2 goods are also on a WD passport 80 GB i bouht 3 of months ago! =)

 

[namkcuR]

If this happens again, stick the HD in a freezer for an hour or two. This sometimes makes a bad HD work again short-term so you can get your shit off of it.

 

[Liesje]

That's what I was thinking of trying, since I've read it in other threads and I think it saved Queen Bee.

For some reason, it just started working. I've backed up everything to my hard drive, and a drive in my husband's computer that I access over the network.