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I am having Windows Vista installed on my pc and for years the WD MY Elements external hard drive was working fine on it. But recently it has stopped appearing in my computer, whenever i plug it in the usb port. The drive gets recognized in disk management and also the safely remove hardware icon shows up when i connect it in my computer. So, does this means that this drive is dying and how can i access the files on this drive, please help?
If it is showing in Disk Management then the drive isnt dying per say. You could try to either uninstall the drive in device manager and then shutdown the pc and disconnect the drive and then restart the pc. After that reconnect the drive and also see to that the power is enabled on the dribe and turn on the pc. Now check if Vista is able to automatically install the drive in the computer and you are able to access the drive.
It seems to me that the drive inside the external closure is failing. And since it is hardly 1 year old then you could try to apply for a new drive, as it might be in warranty and the problem is not caused by any physical damage. There are also tools to recover data from the drive, so first grab all the files from that drive and save it to your computer and then ask for a claim.