Help !!!!!! Accessing Comstar Platinum External Hard Drive

OS: Win XP Pro
External Hard drive: Comstar Platinum One touch 500 GB

Bought in June, 2008 worked fine until two weeks ago. I turned off my computer for the night, turned it on in the morning and the drive icon DIDN"T show up, the

drivers, etc are all there and windows tells me they are operating fine.

I have already spoken with Technicians in the Future Shop where I bought this piece of...., and they were absolutely of no help...other than wanting to replace the

hard drive ... which is out of the question. (I have 5 years of work stored in that HD, Personal, legal and business) and MUST find a way to retrieve it. (Will not

make personal comments about their support or policies.) grrrrrrrr.

I have spoken to Teckie types and tried several suggestions ... none helped so far.

PLEASE ... I'm desperate, and would appreciate any expertise. AND, if someone knows of an inexpensive recovery program. The data is all there, it was not deleted. I
Simply cannot unlock the door.


Anxious Asya

What do you see in Disk Management for the drive? is it showing as a "RAW" or unformatted drive?

Recuva is free, though i've had limited success with it in comparison to using GetDataBack or EasyRecoveryPro (not sure of costs since these are licensed by work).

It doesn't show anything

If the bridge controller board has died, then removing the HDD and attaching it directly to the computer, most likely PATA interface, will allow you to see if the drive is detected in BIOS and accessible. If so, backup the data and then run diagmostics. If not, then running a disk recovery program, if detected but unreadable or a recovery specialist if not detected will be your best options. Recovery services are almost insanely expensive, so brace your self if this option is necessary.