Any idea how it failed? You could try peeling it out of its case and stuffing it into your PC. That way if it was an enclosure failure and not a drive failure you're golden.
There used to be a lot of data recovery programs out there. But they generally only repaired structure issues or fat finger (deleted the wrong directory) issues. Physical hardware issues are generally in the realm of the professional. And back when I worked at one of those places (nearly 20 years ago) we soaked you good. (Lets just say I wouldn't sound desperate when talking to one of those places.)
Something you obviously know but I'll mention for others. Nothing says your backup cannot fail. Once you're down to one copy you're in trouble.
Edit: Might be more appropriate to ask in the Digital Back forum where more pro's exist or at a place like Anandtech.
Thanks for the reply.
When I run disk utility (I'm using a Mac btw), it comes up with the following...
(in a box) "First Aid failed
Disk Utility stopped verifying "My Book" because the following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit."
Then it shows...
"Verifying volume "My Book"
** / dev/disk1s1
** Phase 1 - Read FAT
** Phase 2 - Check Cluster Chains
** Phase 3 - Checking Directories
Unable to read directory (input/output error)
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 non HFS volume check
Volume needs repair.
I just contacted a couple data recovery companies and they quoted extortionate amounts and out of principle I really don't want to be paying for data recovery one month after buying a HDD. My old Lacie's worked perfectly but this WDD is a chunk of sh*t.
Thanks.
Chris.