External Hard drive problems. Please HELP!!!

Hi, I have a Western Digital® My Book™ Premium Edition External USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Hard Drive, 500GB and it's giving me some trouble.
Whenever I put the usb in, it lights up and does several clicking sounds then it stops and never comes under my computer. I have all my stuff save in there. Is there a way to retrieve them. What should I do???
Thank you.

 

Please somebody, anybody, help.

 

try having your computer search for hardware

if the xdrive came with a install drives disk use it

try another USB port

when you have exhausted all options you could alway take the harddrive out of the enclosure and install it internally as a slave

sometimes the circuit board in the enclosure frys

good luck

 

What are the steps to search for hardware?
I will look on heir website to find the driver.