Whats the polarity for a 80g western digital external hard drive

SOURCE: western digital hard drive 500gb

do u just wann wipe it out u meen ? then right clik on it in under my computer formatt it cheak quick box for that hard drive

SOURCE: WESTERN DIGITAL EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

My hard drive was dead and wasn't recognized by the computer, it didn't even start, just a few clicking noises, which according to some of the experiences is the same as a DEAD Hardisk. Anyways, as I read that sometimes this happens as a result of a hit, well, I wacked my HD as a last hope for it to recover its "memory" (as in the movies) and believe me or not, it worked! I don't know if this might help yours, but it saved mine! 
The way I did it was like this: I started the pc and when the HD started to run and I heard a couple of clicks, I hit it against the table while in vertical position (assuming that the arm of the HD might slightly move better that way) one time, and then when the spinning and the first click was heard agin I hit again. After that I heard the typical searching sound of a HD, and you can imagine I started to pray that what I heard wasn't my anxiety sound (if it has any). Now I am a firm believer in the old trick of whacking the old TV to get the vital signal back! 
Good luck to you too!

SOURCE: Western digital 500gb external hard drive ticking noise- Help !!!

There is a number of data recovery solutions online. Just google it. I would recommend one that sends out a static sensitive bag for transportation. But the customer service rep you spoke with, is probably right. The actuator arm has probably locked up and is failing to move back and forth reading and writing to the platters. Good luck and i feel for you with it being your new born on the hard drive.

SOURCE: Help!! Western digital 500gb external hard drive ticking noise

Yes. This is going to sound strange. Put the drive in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. Next day, take it out, hook it up, and see if it is recognized.

If so, under My computer, right click on the drive - click Properties - then Tools, then Error Checking. Check box Automatically Fix File System Errors. Let it run. If everything shows up, be ready to transfer wnat you want off of it.

Freezing shrinks the metal parts . Microscopically, but often enough to get stuck parts free enough to get working.

I just went through this with a 750Gig Book. now i have reformatted the drive (after transferring all over to new drive) and the clicking is gone and all disk checks are fine and i wonder whether to trust this device ever again... Hate to just throw out a large drive.

SOURCE: Notebook does not recognize My Book / Western Digital hard drive

I have solved a similar problem to this. My laptop would not allow me to get to my WD Passport. The driver was fine and no errors were reported - it recognised the drive when I ran the hardware removal utility - I just couldn't see it from any of my windows applications and therefore couldn't get to any data.

The problem was that the passport was being designated as E:\ but my laptop already has a network drive mapped to E:\. When I am in the office the computer connects the network drive to E:/ and so my passport automatically picks the next available letter - F:\. Away from the office, the network drive is still buit shows as "disconnected network drive" and somehow the laptop gets confused into designating both the the passport and the disconnected network drive to the same letter. so the passport is not visible in My Computer.

To fix it I went to My Computer, right clicked on the disconnected network drive and select Disconnect from the options there. And hey presto the passport appeared!

You can see which letter your USB HDD is assigned in the device manager in XP. Right click on the device and go to the Volumes tab - click on Populate and the drive letter should be shown there. If that doesn't match what you see under that letter in My Computer it looks like you have a similar problem & so disconnecting whatever is there in My computer might help.