I have an External Hard Drive that stopped working

I borrowed an external hard drive from a friend that had a bunch of movies that I wanted to watch. After a few days (it was connected to my TV only, I didn't watch movies over the computer) it stopped working.
I tried to hook it up to the computer but all I got is something similar to other problems I read about on here; the computer only detects the USB connected to the computer and sees it as a USB storage device. I can not access it through my computer, nor do I see it when I go to MY COMPUTER - MANAGE - STORAGE.
It is the only USB device hooked to the computer.

I can't even make out its maker - the only thing that I can read on the device is X-craft, external hard drive enclosure.
Before returning it to the friend in this condition, any way I could access it or solve this?

 

I managed to open it, and it says Western Digital WD10EADS.

 

I would have come clean with my friend before trying anything... and solve the problem together. I strongly recommend you do that before you proceed, if you value your friendship.

I supposes the next step would be to take it [the drive] out of the enclosure [carefully] and test it inside your desktop. My drives have always survived enclosure failures...

 

Following JCinvan's advice (which I entirely agree with, if I loan out a drive I'd expect it to be returned as is even if it had failed).

Nevertheless after consulting with your friend run Western Digital's diagnostics on the drive and post back results.

 

already have, he's a programmer and said he\d take it over...thx

 

No problem, thanks for letting us know...

Please mark your thread as 'Resolved'.

 

well, it isn't actually resolved, we'll see once he gets the drive out...

 

I'm curious, in your initial post you said:

did you mean an Xbox or Blue Ray player?

I haven't heard of a TV with a USB port, but then again I have been using my PC as a TV for 5 years... So I'm a little behind on TV tech... I've heard of plasma TVs but that's way out of my budget...

 

A networked media player/drive?

 

I have a PVR that uses external USB devices as recording/playback media.

 

YEp, all the new TVs have a bunch of inputs, such as USB, HDMI, etc... The one I got is a Samsung LED. And I watched blu-ray (and dvd) films.

 

Ya a PVR of course, but a TV that can play media from a USB drive by itself? Well we learn something new every day!

 

First thing to do is to preserve the data by not opening the drive for inspection unless you really know what you are doing. The fault may very well be firmware/system area related and can be solved. Your files are most probably all still intact.

Does anything appear in Device Manager? Post us the WD Diags here if you can.