External trouble

my external hard drive is not being recognized by my MBP. normally whenever i plug it in, the device begins to spin, and the icon is placed onto my desktop. however, today when i plugged in my external, the device begins to spin, but nothing is placed on my desktop. it is not recognized in the disk utility, it shows up nowhere. i do not understand how i can plug it in, the computer can turn it on and being its initial workings... but then not open it. i have restarted both items several times and nothing works... i have very valuable information on my external that i need for this up coming finals week. if you know anything, please let me know. thanks.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
You may have a few options left on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html
If not, you may be forced to resort to a data recovery program such as Subrosasoft Filesalvage, or Prosoft Data Rescue.
In the future, always backup your data as my FAQ* explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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