click for several cycles and the drive does not "spool up" like it has in the past. After several cycles, there is silence. The hard drive on my laptop cycles as though it is trying to recognize the external, but it never shows up on "my computer". Does seem to show up in devic e manager as a USB device, however, that says it is operating just fine
Computers & Internet - Western Digital - My Book Essential Edition (WDG1U5000N) 500 GB Hard Drive
Answers & Comments
You can try to take the drive out and piggy back it on anther working system, this will see if the board for your mybook is fried and just not turning on the drive. I've seen a few of these in my time, usaully when its making that noise, the actual board went on the drive and the only way to get those up is to try and replace the hard drives board.
Here is a link on how to open up your mybook essential:
http://rebootdaily.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-open-western-digital-my-book.html
Usually when the drive starts knocking there hard to get back, some people put them in the freezer for 20min or so loosen up the heads and get the arm and everything spinning again.