Dear HDD gurus!

I need help with this poor external HDD. It was working fine few days ago and now it's not recognized in Windows, Disk Management can't even load drives when this one is connected. Familiar story? A few times I did get a promt to format the drive and drive letter was visible in Explorer. I guess it is possible that HDD was disconnected before it finished writing data when used last time, not sure. I've attached the sound it makes after it spins:
Any hope for this poor one?

I would appreciate any advice to recover my data, if possible without using costly recovery services. Would HDD regenerator help, or even work on USB interface (I guess this one doesn't even have SATA interface). Any other tool I can try?

Thank you HDD gurus!

first do not even think to use HDD regenerator.

can't hear the sound clearly but it can be many things,

1. one of the head is gone
2. FW problem (slow-response)
3. lot of bad sectors

WD is known for "slow-response" problem. in the below thread user successfully apply the slow fix through a script and recover his data. take a look.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32501

Remember DIY has it pros and cons, your data your choice.

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Data Recovery Pakistan

Thanks for the reply. I will check about firmware issue, I hope the method can work via USB.
Otherwise, I don't feel confident enough to mess with the drive hardware or PCB, I think that's the job for professionals.
Any other tips how to diagnose what exactly is the problem with the HDD?

There's nothing you can to yourself to address firmware issues on this drive, at least not without first converting it to be a SATA drive by replacing the PCB and transferring ROM chip. Generally work on these drives requires professional tools like PC-3000 to do it. And, if it isn't the firmware glitch you blindly assume it is, you'll only be making the situation a lot worse. So you're really just wasting your time looking into it. This is a case where you'll definitely need professional service.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company