How to replace the power module for external hard drive. I had take it to Best buy and they said the disk is fine (although cannot see any data). He also said that the power system is bad and he can put it in a new box for $40. Is there a cheap way to do it

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Replace the cable you are currently using with your printer cable and see if it is the cable if that is not the case I would open the case, and check your connections on the hard drive, there is a chance it might have come loose.

You can buy a SATA dongle that plugs in to the hard drive and plugs into the USB port on you computer $20 or buy a external SATA case to put the hard drive in $40 at most computer retailers.

The external storage device has several major components:

* USB cable

* external power-supply

* disk-drive inside the enclosure

* USB-to-disk-drive adapter inside the enclosure.

Try a different USB cable.
Try a different USB port on your computer.
Try a USB port on a different computer.

Take a multi-meter, and measure the output voltage/amperage of the power-supply,
and compare with the specifications on the label of the power-supply.

Open the enclosure, and remove the disk-drive, and attach it as a "slave" drive in a desktop computer, to see if bypassing the USB-to-disk-drive adapter bypasses the problem.

Look at the label on the disk-drive, for manufacturer, product-number, serial-number, and manufacture date. Access the manufacturer's web-site, and use "check warranty status" to see if the warranty still is valid. If so, the drive can be replaced, at minimal cost to you.

Buy a new, compatible, disk-drive, and install it in the enclosure, to "revive" your external storage device.

Search online for a professional "data recovery service". For a significant fee, they can repair your disk-drive, just long-enough to copy your files to a new disk-drive.

Note that W.D. has a "Customer Loyalty" program. Buy a new W.D. disk-drive through the W.D. web-site, at a significant discount.

The disk-drive has malfunctioned.

Search online for a professional "data recovery service".
For a significant fee, they can repair your disk-drive,
just long-enough to copy your files to a new disk-drive.

If it still has a valid WARRANTY, exercise the warranty to get it repaired/replaced.

If the warranty has expired, then open the case, remove the disk-drive, buy a new "compatible" disk-drive, connect it, and thus "revive" your external storage device.

The disk-drive has malfunctioned.

Search online for a professional "data recovery service".
For a significant fee, they can repair your disk-drive,
just long-enough to copy your files to a new disk-drive.

If it still has a valid WARRANTY, exercise the warranty to get it repaired/replaced.

If the warranty has expired, then open the case, remove the disk-drive, buy a new "compatible" disk-drive, connect it, and thus "revive" your external storage device.

Will replacing the data-cable replace the broken-off piece?

If not, then for about $30, you can buy a new "empty" external case, and then "transplant" your current disk-space into the new case.
Take your current external drive to the computer-store, so that the new case that you buy will be the correct case for your existing disk-drive.

Of course, because you have a "small" (100GB) disk-drive, any warranty for the disk-drive probably has expired, and it would be good "preventative-maintenance" to buy a new external disk-drive, before your current disk-drive unexpectedly "quits" on you.

Since you are comfortable with working inside your computer, the best thing to do now is to purchase an external enclosure for your type of hard drive, SATA or EIDE.

Alternately you can use a live linux cd, boot up with that, and transfer your data to an external drive.

Once your data is safe, try booting to the Windows cd and attempt a repair installation.

And finally, yes, hard drives can go bad in 2 years or less.