Need help with an external hard drive

I have a Western Digital My book external hard drive which I have had absolutely no problems with until the usb fell out. I took it to my local computer repairs place thinking it could be re attached but it was impossible to fix. The IT guy told me that they would give it a new casing but now he says that they have scanned it (I don't know why they needed to scan it) and that the drive is empty.

Any idea why this is? or how I can retrieve my data?

It's always worked fine so I don't know how 1tb of data can just disappear!

How dd they scan it with no connection? Dubious here.
You could take the HD out of it's case and try mounting it via something like this:

S35DC eSATA & USB2.0 Docking Station 3.5" & 2.5" SATA Hard Drive w/ free e-SATA Adapter Bracket: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

If your data is intact it should be retrievable.