Is this external HDD dead?

[c3ntury]

My step-dad came to me in a blind-panic; his external HDD had died. Luckily it had a backup, but we'd love to get it back working, since HDD prices are still sky-high it'd seem.

It doesn't show up in 'My Computer' or Explorer, but it does show up in device manager and disk management. When I tried to format it before, it said 'access is denied', and all the options in disk management are greyed out.

I can also feel it *pulsing* almost when I put my hand on it.

Is there anything I can try guys?

Pictures -

[+Warwagon MVC]

I would pull it out of the enclosure hook it direct to a computer system and run spinrite on the drive.

[ybrett23]

I would pull it out of the enclosure hook it direct to a computer system and run spinrite on the drive. but that's just me.

me too

[PGHammer]

I would pull it out of the enclosure hook it direct to a computer system and run spinrite on the drive.

Agreed.

I had a minister come in with a WD MyBook in a similar tizzy.

The drive itself was fine; however, the external electronics (what made the normally-internal SATA drive external) were fried (plugology error).

She bought a newer (and larger) MyBook (which was used to hold the contents of the older one), then she gave me the drive as payment.

The 1TB (unformatted) drive is now my boot drive, letting me pass the 500GB drive it replaced to Mom.

[majortom1981]

On a lot of external hdds they are not good at removing heat. So the external circuit board of the encolusure dies. I have a couple of 1tb hdds here that I am using for things that were originally external hdds but the circuit boards died.

So like the others have said remove it from the case and see if it spins up.