Misleading title? I've lost not one, but two WD external USB hard drives this month. I'm here to gripe about this and/or receive knowledgeable advice.

One an older model 500 GB or some such (I forget), probably had it for around 6 years or so; the other a new model 2 TB that I've probably had for a year and a half or less. The older one had precious and irreplaceable data that I might have SOME of on old CDRs that I don't know where they are right now... The newer one just had our digital movie collection, most of which is retrievable though it would take quite some time and a great deal of effort to do so.

Looking at recovery options now. Narrowed it down that it isn't the USB or power cables, since replacement cables I had lying around didn't work and the cables worked fine for other devices.

Old drive seems to power up. The green ring comes on and I hear some action, but it stops spinning in about a minute while the green light just stays on, unblinking. By propping it up and performing an improvisational dance in tribute to the PC gods, I managed to get this drive to read for just a moment, long enough only to verify that the folders in the top directory were at least intact. But then a moment later I lost whatever unseen force that held the divine connection.

New drive just has a small blinking LED light, and was always too quiet to really hear. It seems if it isn't held in just such a way, the connection is lost, but I did get it to momentarily connect and verify that the top directory was still there as well. Most other times it gives an error that an unrecognized USB device has been attached to my computer, or otherwise tells me the drive needs formatting.

Now thinking about replacing the casings... I have never done such things, but it seems to be a good bet. Anyone ever come under a similar predicament and have a good outcome solution?