CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

With the external drive disconnected remove the drive from the available devices. Now plug the drive back in and let the pc load a driver.

S2pics Loc: South central Michigan

Kroll on track is a data recovery service. Could cost $500-$700 or more to recover all pictures.

TuG Loc: Ventura California

Thanks. I will check it out.

bicyclerepairman Loc: North Central Texas

I had a similar problem a while back and was able to use a program (free) called Recuva and was able to get my pictures back. Hope it all works out for you.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

You have received many good replies, and hopefully are not totally confused about what to do! Since you do not mention having a backup, despite the comments about its importance, it seems it can be assumed that you do not have one.

Once you retrieve your images [or not...], be sure to have at least one backup drive - two is better. Storage is much less expensive than it used to be! And, as Gene51 pointed out, buy better quality drives - the ones with a 5 year warranty.

I saw mention of a case - I use internal drives both internally and externally [with a case]. Places that sell computer components will have them, and they are easy to install yourself. Get one with a fan for cooling.

Also, with thousands of images, be sure to get drives that are big enough not to fill up too quickly. I used to think 2TB would be enough, but have switched to 4TB. Also, the larger drive is less expensive than smaller ones for the same amount of storage [per TB].

I went for many years without a drive failure, but took heed when others said that it was not a matter of IF a drive will fail, but WHEN. So when a 4TB backup drive failed [less than 1 year old], I did not have to go through what you are now experiencing - did not even try to retrieve the data on the drive. Plus the company [WD!] replaced it because it was still under warranty. It is not one of the 5-year warranty drives, the replacement is still working, but it is also backed up by another 4TB of better quality [and the 5 year warranty]!

Ken C

I back up my photos on a 1tb external HD when it gets near full I remove it and get another 1tb disk. Don't forget to label what is on ir.
Ken

grayhawk

I have experienced this many times over the years...not fun.

This program is what I use all the time when hard drives go south. If the data is still on the drive as I suspect it is - this will find the data and rescue it. I had a Drobo Raid drive last week go bad -very unusual - I could not see the drive at all. A soon as I loaded this program it recognized the drive and I was able to recover all my data.

They have a 30 day trial ...give it a try !

https://www.reclaime.com/

GeneS Loc: Glendale,AZ

When I disconnected my external drive before shutting it down, it would not start again.
I opened the case, very carefully, and the read arm was stuck in the out position. After
reading about this on google I turned the disc and arm returned back in rest position.
Has worked every since.
Lookup on read arm on google

Advark

If the drive still spins, you might give
"Spin Rite" a try.
https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Steve Gibson is an extra-ordinary guy. He is a
regular with Leo Laporte on a program called
"Security Now".
See also: https://twit.tv/

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Goes to show that ANY hard drive (or SSD) can fail at ANY time, and "thousands" of photos should NEVER be entrusted to just one storage location.
So sorry.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

A decent computer shop should be able to help you. Give one a try.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

In past years when I had a HD failure I would place in a bag and press all the air out of the bag zip it closed and place it in the freezers for a few hours, and plug it back in to the computer it’s a fifty fifty shot that it would work! One t other thing you might try a different USB cable if you have the correct one, or have you tried a different USB port!

Kuzano

A Western Digital drive will often click repeatedly if it is failing. Use a stethoscope or long screwdriver placed against the drive.

More often the circuitry in the actual drive enclosure will fail.
cheap failure prone extra circuitry. Also slower and less stable than internal hookup. A strong case for desktop with room for 2-4 internal drives.

Get the drive out of the enclosure and try another enclosure. First test the drive out of the enclosure.

in 25 years of teching and consulting my experience of failed external drives had been hard drive good/external enclosure bad. In fact the very worst External enclosures in the market have been LaCie. But Seagate recently acquired LaCie to turn LaCie's imminent failure (quality control) around.

Seagate has often grown their company by acquiring and improving Hard Drive and component companies.
They bought Quantum, Bigfoot and Maxtor over the years and worked to improve those company IQ problems or meld them into Seagate. So, with LaCie.

So I contend you know little about your problem if you don't extract the Western Digital drive and test it alone.

Even on the molded cases (without screws) I have often broken into the case to extract the standard drive from it's suspect circuity and test it. It has the same connectors as an internal drive and can be tested.

However check first for no spinup and/or rapid clicking. Those suggest actual drive failure.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

There have been a lot of good ideas. I would suggest investing in a SSD drive - no moving parts to fail.

appealnow Loc: Dallas, Texas

Take the drive to a good computer repair service to see if they can get it up and running enough to copy your data. I don't know if Best Buy has the equipment to really recover a drive. If they can't, ask if they know a sophisticated service that might be able to recover the data. It might cost some $, but how much is your data worth? In the future, do what I do: I store my photos on at least one (sometimes two) internal drive plus two external USB drives in case one fails.