Freecom Quattro External 3TB HDD

The drive both lights up and spins up. I see and hear it do both. What it doesn't do is show up anywhere on my Mac - not in Disk Utility or Finder or Systems Profiler. Nothing either under USB or Firewire, where it seems to be listed under 'Unknown Device'. Another curious things is that as it spins up it begins a low rhythmic ticking sound. I can just make it out. The light seems to sort of 'pulse' every ten seconds or so in addition to that. I read elsewhere that a ticking or clicking sound is not good news. I wouldn't know as I'm not very savvy technically. I've tried swapping cables, changing the ports in use and what have you. Nothing seems to work. I thought I might try Disk Warrior but it's expensive and anyway I can't see how it would recognize any drive the machine itself cannot sense the presence of, though again I might be wrong.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I'm frustrated because I bought it in July last year, so it's only a month out of warranty [it was an Amazon Marketplace purchase and the seller offered only a 12 month parts and labour guarantee]. I do hope it can be salvaged.

Thank you in advance.

It does sound like your drive has mechanical problems. As you stated, the clicking sound is not good and usually means the drive is defective. Recovery software in my opinion would not work since it's obvious the drive can not be accessed. It's too bad your warranty has expired but I'm afraid there's really nothing you can do unless the data is valuable and you're willing to spend a lot of money to recover it.

I appreciate your candour chscag. Not what I was hoping to hear but there it is. £250 [about $350] down the pan. Life's a ***** and then you die, right? [Edit: and to add insult to injury it seems I can't even use the commonly accepted zoological term for a female canine without incurring the wrath of the Tolerance Police. Pathetic.]