WD MyBook no longer readable on my iBook

Question

HELP PLEASE!!! My Hard drive accidentally disconnected from them USB port and now when I plug it back in, it says that it's not readable:( I bought a new WD My Book World hard drive so I could get rid of all cables, but I don't want to lose all my music and 10 years of pictures. Can somebody please help me?

Answer 1

If the Disk Utility can't see the externally enclosed USB hard disk drive,
you may have to get and use a third-party disk utility such as DiskWarrior.
Could be there is some damage in the external drive's data due to improper
unmounting of the drive from the computer, prior to a physical disconnect.
The data on the drive should be recoverable, however some repair of the
hard disk drive would be a likely requirement before full access is possible.
There may be something else wrong with the hard disk drive or the enclosure
however it is possible to see about repairing the disk drive if it appears in the
Disk Utility. It may appear there even if it won't work. And sometimes, too, an
external drive may appear if attached before the computer is started, so it is
there when the computer loads all of the usual files. Even if it won't appear
on the Desktop, it may appear if attached before a restart, in Disk Utility.
That may be a chance to see if the basic 'repair disk' feature in your Mac's
Disk Utility can help gain access to the data. There may be a bad sector
or other damages to the hard disk drive's software or hardware, too.
For attempting to recover data, there are services that can be rather costly
and those can vary in price according to the amount of data is recovered;
there also some that can recover most data even if they have to rebuild a
hard disk drive from parts of other similar units, if the unit has a defect.
I'd heard of trial software for recovery, where you can get a limited version
that can scan for data on the hard drive in question, and see if anything is
there; and later you would pay to get the full version to work. Or, you would
send the unit in and a technician would work in recovering the data ($$$)
re: data rescue: http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
If you can get the Disk Utility to see and do minor repair, that would be OK.
However, a third party utility such as DiskWarrior may be able to access
some file structures the Mac's Disk Utility may not be able to. Of course,
DiskWarrior is a retail product, and sells in the range of $99. I've heard.
Another idea, to try, if the external drive can be seen, may be some software
that is open source (+free) that is helpful in recovering data of several types.
Data, images, documents, and so on; from flash drive, hard drive, etc.
• PhotoRec - image recovery CGSecurity:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
Though the above may help, the main concept is to get the Mac to recognize
there is an external hard disk drive attached. I've had some experience with
this with different technologies, but have been mostly lucky & persistent.
Good luck & happy computing!