Ext Hard Drive is registering as a CD Drive! I cannot access it.

hello

Today the plug got knocked out of my Ext WD MyBook Essential 2TB drive and i 'think' it 'may' have been in use, copying some stuff to the laptop.

The drive now doesn't register properly - it is showing as the CD drive! - which means all attempts to access it and read it don't work, because it thinks its an empty cd tray.
its saying its an empty drive.
when i click on properties it is there - twice - listed as its proper name - once as a CD drive and once as a normal drive - but the only icon showing in the main computer window is the CD drive one.

it shows up in the 'eject software' bit - but wont disconnect, it says its still in use - but its not.

it also shows up with its full name in various other places on the machine, so it knows its there.

the light is on and its making a gentle humming and whirring noise - no clicks etc.

i am trying various things, software etc to scan it etc, but not having much luck.
most of them so far have appeared to scan it, for ages, then come back with nothing - as i say.
one wouldnt even scan it - said there is too many bad sectors.
I have about another types of 5 software to try...

i have tried another usb lead but no change.

i checked on the drive manager and its showing that is not initialised, so i tried to do that but it wouldn't allow it - it said the drive is write protected -i have put a password on it - is this stop me having access to it with recover software?

it is also showing as RAW in some places.

This is the 3rd WD drive i've had that has gone wrong, with very little use - this one was a replacement and i have only actually used it about 10 times - they are terrible terrible drives


i do not want to take it apart really - it is still in warranty. but i want the data.

how can this just stop working? it is set to where you do not have to eject the drive to disconnect it - surely there are processes in place to stop loss of data in these circumstances?

i had only just installed the software too, about half an hour earlier - could that be the problem?

i have a back up on another drive - which contains most of my stuff, but there are some things i would like to recover that i have no copy of - i have just reset my laptop so sods law it happens while i am doing that!

I have tried it in 2 other machines - no change.

I am going to try Ubunto now.

But any ideas what i can do?

(i haven't done the freezer thing, as there are so many conflicting reviews of it - ill save that as a last resort)

many thanks