external hard drive dead?

My external hard drive was working fine and while i was downloading something, it suddenly went off and it doesnt work anymore. The drive stopped making any sounds and all computers I tried plugging it into doesnt recognize it anymore. It is a 400GB western digital my book essentials and I had it for little over a year. If it is dead is there anyway to retrieve the stuff on the drive because I had 300GB of files in there
Answer #1
I opened up mine and pluged it direcly in the ide controller and it worked..
Answer #2
There arent any screws located anywhere on the outside of the enclosure so I can’t open it without destroying the case. Any other suggestions before I have to break the case
Answer #3
the power converter die ?
getting any lights on the drive ?
Answer #4
When I power on the hard drive theres usually a clicking sound that it makes to show that its running but now when I turn it on, it lights up but its completely silent
Answer #5
sounds like the hdd has died or the case circute board has died as well conect to thje computer and you wi;lll see if it the hdd or the case
Answer #6
try googling “open enclosure <drive name>”
there may be a way to pop it open
Answer #7
Something similar happened to me with a consair, had to scrap it! best to mount it inside your computer using a SATA cable if it is in fact a SATA drive
Best of Luck
Answer #8
Well I broke the casing a bit…a 500 gb hd..full of data..better than a dead one with a pretty case…