Yesterday I dropped my 1TB WD MyPassport external USB3.0 hard drive (P/N: WDBACX0010BBK-00), which is SATA3. It was already a couple of years old and needed replacing soon but just as I was backing it up tonight, it died on me. Wont appear in My Computer, Disk Management or Disk Utility on mac. When plugged in it still lights up and spins but is only idling and doesn't flash and spin up faster like it normally does when first attached to a computer. No clicking happening at all, the disk just fires up and idles at the same speed.

There is suggestion on the web that the unfortunate setup of the direct USB attachment to the board as seen in the picture below could be the cause for a lot of problems:
http://http://screencast.com/t/hTwqZaCeiO6J

As you can see from that image, the Micro USB interface is soldered straight onto the board and hence the drive can't simply be plugged in through a SATA connecter in a PC. However, I think if this was able to be done, the data would be available no worries simply through My Computer as usual. The head doesn't sound like it is cracked and the drive is spinning fine, and the power is reaching the drive via the USB it's just that the data isn't processing properly. Other promising signs include that it is appearing in the 'Safely Remove Hardware' section in the bottom right corner of the desktop as 'MyPassport 0730" but the USB interface isn't installing properly. All of these signs is pointing to a connection issue to me, but I am no expert.

Without forking out the $$$ to send it to a specialist data recovery person I want to try and ascertain if the data can be obtained before expensive recovery techniques.

Any help or expertise in the area would be greatly appreciated! And if you think it's time to send it for professional recovery, how much should I be getting charged for such a job? Approx 400gb of data on the drive.
Thanks

If you want to post your email I'll send you some steps with pics as to how to replace the connector with a SATA connector.