WD External Drive not initialised. SMART status unknown

[ronaroux]

My external drive has suddenly stopped being recognized.
On connecting it is powering up, I can hear it spinning with no scratching, and it is being picked up in Device Manager. Devise Manager is not recognising any volumes on it though, and I am unable to access it all.
I checked in Disk management, but it shows an not initialised. I cannot initialise due to an unknown I/O error.
I checked in WD Data Lifeguard and this is showing the drive with an unknown SMART status but passes both tests.
I have tried backup software but as the volumes are not recognised I don't have the option to backup or clone.
is this a losing battle, or is there any way to recover the files at all?
The drive itself is under a year old, and as far as I am aware has not been dropped, damaged etc.

 

[Megahertz07]

Sad to say but your disk seems to be dead.
On the WD diag did you noticed that the capacity is 0?

Any rotating disk works like a gyroscope and try to to remain in the same rotating plane.
If you rotate the drive (horizontal to vertical and/or vertical to horizontal) while it's working, the inside disk bents and the reading arm touches the surface. So never, ever, move the disk while it's working
In your case it looks more like the electronics has failed.