hard drive not recognized

My external hard drive (EHD) is not being recognized by several
computers that run on Windows XP and XP Professional. The EHD is
Western Digital Series 1 USB 2.0 (Old USB 2.0) - Model Number
WD1200B05-RNN. It is just over 2 years old and is out of warranty.

I've done some reading online forums such as this where users have
had similar problems, but I didn't see any solutions - or, any that
I understood, so I ask that if people have suggestions, to guide me
through it step-by-step.

It was working a few days ago. The other day, I was doing a file search
on it and it stopped responding in mid-search, so I started the search
again, and it stopped responding again in mid-search. After that, the
computer won't even recognize it as a separate drive, although the
bottom right of screen shows a symbol that there is an external HD
plugged in. Windows XP detects that I plugged in the external hard
drive and the icon "Safely remove device" appears too in the tool
bar. However, I cannot see the drive in "My Computer." I've tried
to plug it into 2 other PCs including my laptop, and the same thing
happens: it isn't seen under "My Computer" but the icon appears
on the taskbar. I've tried to unplug it & re-plug & restart the
computer, but nothing. I've tried installing the driver again and
restarting, to no avail.

Before I plug in the drive, I open the Control Panel, Administrative
Tools, Computer Management window, but when the drive is plugged in,
the Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management window
says it is "Not Responding" so a window pops up and I hit "End
Program." Also, the Start button and Windows taskbar on bottom of
screen disappears - when the EHD is plugged in. When I unplug the USB
cable from the PC, the Start button and taskbar reappear and the
Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management window works
fine. (Strange that it started working when I was doing the file
search, then it stopped responding, and now it's not even being
recognized by a computer. I don't understand how that could happen.
Nothing happened to it b/w it working and not working.)

Another thing I noticed was with the 2 lights on the EHD. The EHD has 2
lights -a red one and a green one. In the past, when I plugged in the
EHD, it would take a few seconds for the PC to open a window saying
that the drive was recognized and asking me what folder I wanted to
open. During these few seconds, the red "access" light would be on
and flashing. Now, when I plug the EHD into the PC, the red light stays
on (not flashing) for 20 seconds, the goes off for 10 seconds, then
goes back on for 20 seconds, then on again for 10, and so on. It did
this pattern of on for 20 and off for 10 for about 5 minutes before I
stopped observing this. It never did this before, so something is
wrong, and I think it's the hard drive itself and not any of the
computers. However, I am wondering whether any recent updates (Windows
or Norton) might have affected a computers ability to recognize the
hard drive.

Now, when I plug in the drive to just the power/electrical cord, I do
hear it boot up and spinning inside the case, as usual, and the green
power light is illuminated.

When I gently shake the drive, I don't hear any parts flopping
around, as if something had broken off.

The user's manual for this unit does not offer any help for this
problem. I'm not a computer expert, so if people have
questions/suggestions, please tell me what to do step-by-step, using as
little computerese as possible.

The IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers are Intel =AE 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage
Controller - 24CB. (I saw someone ask for this info. on another post
EHD's not being recognized, so I looked this up on the PCs I use
and posted it here in case this is useful.)

Is there a store that I can take my drive to and they can see what the
problem is and try and fix it?

A guy in IT at my university opened the case and took the drive out. He
plugged it in another PC, but it too wouldn't recognize it. He ran the
Western Digital diagnostics and it came up with "Error 104: Disc Not
ready" so there is something wrong with the drive itself; it's not just
an electrical problem - he said drives just fail and if you don't
have a backup/2nd copy, ppl just take the loss and move on or pay lots
of money for Drive Savers - prob. costs hundreds of hundreds of
dollars - I said I needed that data - he said the other thing they
could do is a sector copy or block copy and maybe the data can be
recovered, but not likely but worth a shot, but they not have the
storage for my 120GB drive and I said I'd buy a new one bec. I needed
one anyway and he said he'd try the sector copy - he said he was not
too familiar with such a recovery attempt, but it's worth a try -
sector copy is when you make copies of all the sectors on the disc and
one can do this even if the drive/disc isn't able to be recognized by a
PC - he said some test he did was able to detect 27,000 sectors of
data on my drive but then the test kept going but no new sectors found
and maybe more sectors are there - the sector copy may skip over the
part of drive that not recognized and find/copy additional sectors -
he said all I needed was the bare drive as I already have the external
case - he got a 120GB bare drive at Fry's for $50 - he said Circuit
City had a similar deal 2 weeks ago - I said I'd buy the bare drive
and bring in the old external hard drive and he said he'd try that
sector copy.

I was prepared for the worst news as soon as I discovered the drive not
working. Now all I want is my data. I'll buy the new hard drive then
we'll try the sector copy idea. After that, I'm not sure. I'll call
Drive Savers and get a free estimate. I'll also do some online research
and see what other options there may be. Do you know of any? I just
want the data. The IT guy thinks the data is still there, as do I. It's
just how do we get that data copied ... that's the question. I hope all
the data is recoverable. I'm wondering if there is any way to know
whether we got all the data once whatever is salvageable is copied. I
remember I saw I had about 80GB on that drive when I last checked it
about a week ago.

My external hard drive has 2 years of priceless photos and other files
on it, so I do need to get these files. If the drive is dead, fine. But
I just need to find a way to recover these files. Is there any recovery
software out there for this purpose, or should I leave it to some
professionals like Drive Savers?

Please help!

Kevin=20

(feel free to email me at kfranken8 [at] yahoo [dot] com)