External Hard drive not recognized

Hello, I have a Western Digital external hard drive (similar or the same as this one : Western Digital - My Passport Essential SE 1TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black - WDBACX0010BBK-NESN) and i've never really had issues with it. I'm a graphic design student, so it's kind of my lifeline. The other day I had it plugged in during class, and it was working,e verything was fine, and I ejected it as normal but when I got home and plugged it back into my computer the computer just wouldn't recognize it. The light comes on, but it doesn't pop up on the desktop and it doesn't show up in disk utility. Also, I don't really understand System Profiler, but I can't find it there either. Is there anything else I can try before I give up and take it somewhere to be looked at?
thanks so much!
-Amy

Does the disk show up in DiskUtility ?

You can find that app. in Applications/Utilities/ Disk Utility.app

Cheers ... McBie

I tried it in disk utility and in system profiler, and it doesn't show up in either. I also just tried it on one of the school's desktops and it does the same thing on those computers.

It's possible the USB controller failed in the drive. That's both good and bad news. Good in that the drive had not failed and the data would be intact. Bad in that you can't access it immediately. I'd recommend purchasing a USB drive enclosure, putting the drive in it, and seeing if it works. If not, return the enclosure. If so, you're back in business. I know WD usually has a 3 year warranty on consumer drives and 5 year on professional, but replacing the drive doesn't get your data back.