Cannot read external hard drive

[bltbackwards]

I have a WD external hard drive that took a small 1-ft drop off of my PC and now I'm unable to read or write to it.

It is detected by windows when I go into devices in the control panel, but when I go into disc management it's no where to be found. The light on the external drive is on when I plug it in and I can feel the hum of it working (on something...)

Tried the drive with a different computer. Same results. Both computers are running Windows 10.

I'd like to avoid reformatting, as the very very last resort as I believe I have a couple files that aren't anywhere else (and hopefully not terribly important).

Thanks.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, bltbackwards.

This is a truly unfortunate situation. 🙁
Basically there's not much you can do in cases like this one. Even if the drive is spinning, it doesn't mean that it's not damaged. Even though the drop wasn't from a high place, it's easy for a hard drive to sustain physical damage (especially if it was working at the moment).
You could try accessing the drive via Ubuntu Live USB, to see if it is properly recognized and if you can get to your files. Another option would be to try data recovery software, in hopes that at least one of the programs will be able to detect it and recover your data - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm. There's also the option for a professional solution, such as a data recovery company: WD Data Recovery Partners.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD