External Hard drive No Longer Working! [urgent]

PLEASE HELP!

Okay so i have an external hard drive, western digital, almost exactly a year old. i was tagging/playing.organizing some music when things went really weird. I wasn't able to access certain files, files and folder were undeletable because they were not there according to the hard drive. I was having write permission issues with tagging, so i "took ownership" of the folder i was trying to edit. i have no idea if that is what did it or not, but after unplugging and replugging my external, it no longer shows up in explorer. I get the device disconnected/connected sound when i unplug/connect it and there are no unusual sounds coming from the device.

This device has a lot of important information on it that is only partially backed up. Pictures/Music/School Work/Documents.

i tried plugging it into my laptop running linux, but nothing at all happens.
i tried plugging it into my laptop running windows 10, it "installed" the device, but like my PC, i only get the alert sounds upon plugging and unplugging.

i am really hoping that it isnt the device's hardware that is the problem and that i somehow changed permissions and made it hidden... i know this is a longshot, but i could really use some help!

i went to look in Disk Management a second time and this time i am getting an alert.
"You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it"
It is "Disk 5"
and it wants me to pick MBR or GPT partition style

Chose GPT, but then it just said the device was unavailable

It was probably an MBR disk. So I would stick with that. If Linux cannot read it, that is not good news. Usually Linux is more tolerant than Windows.

It looks more like a problem with the controller than the disk. If you can take it out and attach it to an external cable or enclosure (see below), that would be a good test.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-022-_-Product

This happens to be a USB3 enclosure, but they also come as USB2. Cables are a bit cheaper but I would recommend the enclosure since the price difference is minimal.

Thanks. I actually did get something very briefly with my Laptop in Windows 10. (and as i am typoing this up, i got it again)

i used a different port, it installed the device like last time, but then in Disk Manager, i have an Unknown Disk 1, 2794.49GB (which it says is also unallocated) not initialized. It is a 3tb drive so i am assuming this is the drive. Anything ic an do from here?

Is there any data you want to keep on the disk.

whs said:

Is there any data you want to keep on the disk.

Yes. Definitely. I cannot stress that enough.

i am under a 2-year recovery plan with Seagate that i bought when i bought the hard drive. The fine print is pretty restricted, which is worrisome. They also offer software that can be used to recover date, but it costs money to actually recover it. Any recommendations on best course of action?

what happens if i click "Initialize" when i right click on it?

Since Linux did not help, you can try this one. At least it is free.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

whs said:

Since Linux did not help, you can try this one. At least it is free.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Thanks. i am going to contact Seagate and see what i can do about getting a replacement because until i get a new External, i have no idea where to even store the recovered data.