External HDD not detected

Question

I have Seagate Expansion Portable Drive Model: SRD00F1 which is out of warranty unfortunately. There were problems in it which I was trying to fix.

From these Problems that have been trying to fix in my external HDD before it came undetectable:

1. At some files, the reading becomes very slow tremendously!
2. Some files were corrupted & some were disappeared out of hand!

The main problem now isn't these problems, it is when I tried to fix them using disk recovery software I've ended up with the disability to detect my external hdd although it was readable and detectable with them.

What I've tried to fix the previously mentioned problems:

1. I've used Norton Utilities 16 >> Disk Doctor >> Surface Scan. It took a lot of time and seemed not responding, so I've interrupted it. The disk was detectable after this process normally.
2. I've used PC Tools Disk Suite >> Surface Scan. It took a lot of time and it displayed a lot of errors of the kind The disk does not have enough space to replace bad clusters. And finally it ended up with an error, with an error code I forgot to record unfortunately, interrupting the process. The disk wasn't detectable for a while but was slowly responding after this process, then became undetectable at all.

What I've tried to fix the disability to detect my external HDD problem:

1. I've changed the USB Ports I plug-in my external HDD at. Make No Sense.
2. I've tried other computers to plug-in my external HDD at. Make No Sense.
3. I've tried to safely remove my external HDD, but nothing happens, then I end up with removing without the safely removing readiness popup message.
4. I've opened the Device Manager and surprisingly I've found that it's detectable by the device manager in Storage Controllers >> USB Attached SCSI (UAS) Mass Storage Device. But not detectable by File Explorer.

My drive sounds normal but is not detected, as there is no beeping sound or clicking noises!

I need to make my external HDD detectable again, and solve the two problems mentioned at first!

UPDATE: Please don't tell me that there is no solution as I'm sure that the problem is a software related, not physical! Any software problem can be solved via DIY approaches so please don't tell me to give up while there is a hope!

Answer 1

Your hard drive is dying. Copy all your data off of it. If the hard drive is not being recognized, you can power cycling (on and off). If you are desperate to get data off, you can trying freezing your hard drive.

Answer 2

Yup. This sounds like a failing hard drive. Your best bet is to give up on it and get another one. You could try recovering the data at some other time if you wish. There are various utilities that will do that. I used one called Disk Doctors NTFS Data Recovery.

http://www.diskdoctors.net/ntfs-data-recovery/software.html

It worked on failing drives and formatted drives by going sector by sector. It can take quite a long time, but the process can be helpful. It will determine if something is unrecoverable during the recovery process.