External HDD failed acts weird out of nowhere.

[pabloe168]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002QEBMB4/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

Its one of this, the 1tb version. So out of nowhere it doesn't load. When I try to open it, any computer freezes. I cant access the storage device manager it takes forever to open. What happened? how can I rescue the information thats inside? Any idea? I've tried two computers so far. Last thing it did was store my computer system restore image in it, it was like 12 hours of continues file copying, but it was just 50gb in the end. Did that killed it?? also its my brother's... so we got it for him in 2010 in dec. And until now it hasnt been formated nor it hasn't gone through maintenance... Whatever happens next I CANT LOSE THE INFO. suggestions?

 

[pabloe168]

update, when I boot when the drive is connected it stops everything from loading, nothing loads! wtf. (this is an external drive) I plug it off and everything starts instantly. also it behaves really weird. It prevents storage manager from loading, I did a dirty trick and loaded the manager and then connected it, but I get the weirdest response please take a look. Disk 0 is my boot drive and Disk 2 is the external drive.

http://imgur.com/HJFBa

WTF is going on?!!?

 

[pabloe168]

http://imgur.com/3Wdot now I go that... wow what is this?

 

[szaboaz]

If you're lucky, it's only the USB chip that's failing.

You can take the box apart, get out the hard drive and join it directly to the motherboard of a desktop PC (you'll need a SATA cable).

Open (Take Apart) WD Elements External Hard Drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZUMh_H3B_Y

How to Open a Western Digital Elements External Hard Drive Enclosure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCS8ui-6WZY