Issue with WD external hard-drive

I'm having issues with my WD external hard drive. It's been working for several months, not a problem and this weekend I went to plug it in and it doesn't show up.

When plugged in, the light on the back briefly lights up and then dims. I can hear it working a bit as well. I tried it on another mac, and still nothing. I also re-started my computer and again, no response.

I have a lot of information on there that I would like to keep. I have another hard drive that I can save things on so I really only want to be able to take the information from the one that is not working and either move it to my computer or to the other hard drive.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do to either get the original one working or how to get my information off there intact?

Thanks

Welcome to the Mac forums.

It sounds like the WD may have died. Depending on what's wrong with the drive, it may be possible to extract your data from it using special software.
Data Rescue 3 is very good at pulling data from drives that are dead or defective. It's pricey though, but they do have a trial version that you can try to make sure you can extract the data.

Another suggestion is if you're handy at taking things apart... Most external drives consist of the interface electronics (USB) and the drive itself. In some instances, the drive is OK but the electronics have failed. Consequently, the drive will not mount. It's possible with some external drives to remove the drive out of its case and mount it in a new one or use an adapter.

What model is it? With my old computer, I used a WD My Book 2TB, that used the wall socket as it's power source. A very similar thing happened to me... I'd plug the USB in (the external power was always plugged in to my surge protector) and the light would come on in front, but quickly fade. Restarted the computer, tried another computer we had, nothing worked. Called for support, they suggested I un-plug it both from the computer, and the power from the wall for 20 seconds, and then try it again. It came on, and I'm still using it these days. (and this issue still happens every now and then, I have no idea why, they didn't either.)

Might try that. But if it's powered via the USB cable then obviously of course you can't. Just thought I'd chime in