So, I've got a Western Digital 250GB external hard drive (AKA - personal storage device.) I've had it for about a year and really didn't pay all that much for it - and apparently it's finally died on me. It will turn on, make a loud clicking, then turn off. As far as I can tell, the power supply is the issue. But either way, I've messed with it to no end and haven't been able to get it to stay on or work for me.

My question isn't how to fix it - because I don't think that's going to happen. (But if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear it) But the main thing I'm wondering is if there is a way I can retrieve the information off of it. There's all kinds of media, text files, and whatnot on it that I'd really hate to lose.

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated!

I'd say, if possible, just go ahead and take the hard drive out of the case and stick it in your computer.

Take the hard drive out of the case, buy a new enclosure, they come with power supply, put the HD in the new enclosure and you are set. I do not think it iis the actual HD.

Originally Posted by yacoutamia

I'd say, if possible, just go ahead and take the hard drive out of the case and stick it in your computer.

I second Yac's suggestion. Also, the "clicking" sounds like a really bad thing. I associate clicking with hard disk head crashes.

Worse case scenario you can have data retrieval companies do a recovery for you if it is really vital. It would probably be quite expensive, as they do platter transfer and then retrieval. Even then there is no guarantee everything can be recovered.