Free data recovery from dead external hard drive western digital

Does it spin up or make any sound or vibration, however soft, as if it is trying to spin up?

Can you see it with UVCView or HD Sentinel?

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_IDs/UVCView.x86.ex...
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

Be aware that many users are reporting connection problems with the USB connector.

Nope to all; not a sound, vibration or any indication it's trying to do anything.

It does sound like a board fault.

Is this a Passport? If so, then the USB circuitry is on the drive itself, rather than on a separate board. If you don't mind voiding your warranty, then open the enclosure and post some photos of the boards. Your next step will depend on what we find.

The most convenient backup system would have duplicate copies of every file and program that were immediately accessible whenever a Data Loss Event was noticed. However, in most situations, there is an inverse correlation between the value of a unit of data and the length of time it takes to notice the loss of that data. Taking this into consideration, many backup strategies decrease the granularity of restore ability as the time increases since the potential Data Loss Event. By this logic, recovery from recent Data Loss Events is easier and more complete than recovery from Data Loss Events that happened further in the past.
Recovery is also related to the type of Data Loss Event. Recovering a single lost file is going to be substantially different than recovering a whole system that was destroyed in a flood. An effective backup regimen will have some proportionality between the magnitude of Data Loss and the magnitude of effort required to recover. For example, it should be far easier to restore the single lost file than to recover the whole system destroyed in a flood.

I am having the same issue, but mine does atleast come on, however, I cant turn the green button off/on, it's just on. I have switched out the USB cord several times, nothing helps....I really need some wedding photos off of it!!!! :-(