I can't access information on the hard drive. The data is there.... but there's no folder to open.

Connect your laptop's hard drive to an USB hard drive adapter then plug this adapter into the USB port of a working computer.
The computer will see this USB adapter/hard drive as an external storage device. You can then open the various folders and files on this hard disk and copy and or backup your data.

The hard drive was corrupted but the worm virus. Worms will eat data and can change the data to what it wants (to destroy anything). If you can not do an open with to open your data with the correct program.

Your WD HDD have been attacted by viruses for your computer or outside computer where you used it last. Make sure that you have an up to date antivirus software, scan your computer or the external hard drive, explore your computer, go to tools - folder options under view files & folders select show hidden files and folders apply and ok it.

The other folders may be hidden.
To show hidden folders and files.
Open the drive - Click on Tools - Folder Options - View tab and enable Show hidden files and folders.

To access the files off the hard drive another way - remove the hard drive from the case and connect it to an USB hard drive adapter and then plug it into a working computer's USB port. If the computer see the hard drive as an external hard drive/storage device and you can open the folders and files then backup your data. This also indicated the hard drive is OK and the Western Digital case/electronics is faulty.
To use this as an external USB hard drive, put the hard drive in an USB adapter case.

make sure your logged in as administrator

I will answer this in two areas.

1. You have an AOL account on a machine and you want to make sure your favorites and emails make it to the new computer
2. You downloaded and installed AOL on one machine and you do not want to have to download it again.

I will answer the second one first.

• aoldnld.exe is a very small file that you get from aol.com to install AOL 9.5 on your computer. As it installs it gets the rest of the files from the Internet. The computer would have to be connected to the Internet to use the file from the flash drive.

As to the first scenario;

• Aol has a menu to back up your favorites.
• Click on the Favorites bar at the top of the screen
• Click on manage
• Click on Save my favorites to a file on my computer
• You will get to choose the location to save the file
• Select your flash drive.

To backup your Personal Filing Cabinet:

1. Close the AOL software.
2. Click Start, click All Programs or Programs, click AOL, and then click AOL System Information.
Note: If you are unable to access AOL System Information, go to the help article Open Data Folder for instructions on how to manually open the Data Folder. Once done, click the Back button in the help article to return to this article, and then continue from step 4.
3. Open the Data folder:

• If you are using AOL 9.5, AOL Desktop, AOL 9.1, or any version of AOL 9.0, click the AOL Software tab, and then click Open Data Folder.
• If you are using AOL 9.0 Optimized, click Data Folder.
• If you are using AOL 8.0 plus or lower versions, click Folder.

4. Right-click the Organize folder, and then click Copy.
5. Right-click on your desktop, and then click Paste.
6. Click X on the upper right to close open windows.
You can now send this folder as an attachment through e-mail or save it to your USB drive to either keep it as a backup or transfer it to another computer.

Yes. The data is recoverable. http://techrxgb.com for a free estimate. Typically, there are a lot of issues with passport drives due to heat.

If the drive is new, you may need to format it. If you already have data on it, then DO NOT format it.

If it is new, you'll right click on the drive icon and click format. After the drive is formatted, you'll be able to open the folder for the drive.

you can try some data recovery software. You can see
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Asoftech-Data-Recovery/290956907592436?sk=info
It tells the steps how to perform data recovery.

If above does not work, you may have to format the hard drive (use quick format), and then use above mentioned software to scan again the hard drive and recover your files.