Failed External Hard Drive

My Maxtor external hard drive (in a USB case) seems to have failed. Though the usb is recognised and shown in the notification bar, the drive is not shown when I click My Computer.

When it is shown in My Computer and I open it, no files are shown. When I right on properties, I am told it's empty.

The HD contains my life's work and would be an invaluable loss if that happens.
I run XP SP3. Now I know why PC users must backup, backup and backup!!!

What can I do to get my data back? I am desperate!

Remove the hard drive from the external case and either attach it directly to the computer (IDE or SATA), or with a ~$20 USB adapter. If you can see your data now, (hopefully), something in the external case's circuitry is flaky/dead.

(FWIW, I ran accross this same sort of scenario a couple of months or so ago. A friend's 1TB SimpleTech Pro Drive appeared to be dead. He was frantic; "his life was on that drive". I removed the drive, tested it with a USB adapter and everything appeared to be fine. Ordered a ~$40 generic external case from Newegg, installed the drive in it and according to my friend it's working great).

First, I'd remove the drive from the enclosure and attach it as a secondary drive directly to your computer's motherboard using the appropriate interface and cables. That will eliminate the external interface as a source of the problem. If nothing shows up then, you will need to try some recovery software. See the link below. If that does not find anything, then it may be time for a drive recovery service like OnTrack.


See this link for recovery software:

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...ghlight=recuva


OnTrack:
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/

If all else fails (and only as a last resort), you can attempt some of these tricks:

200 Ways to Revive a Hard Drive

How to fix a dead hard drive