Usually unplugging an external while its on is relatively safe unless something writing at the time it was turned off. That would create errors with whatever was open or, worst case, if the directory structures were messed up, it would power on but be unreadable.
That normally doesn't stop it from being turned on. That sound more like, if it was unplugged from the back of the drive unit somewhat violently, it could have shorted or damaged the power connection.
The drive and/or data could be ok.
Take it somewhere. Here are the possibilities.
It might be as simple as a fuse in the power supply or the power connection to the drive unit(best case).
It could be something in the enclosure/case is too fried but the drive itself is ok. They sell empty enclosures and the drive can be simply put in a new enclosure. New enclosers run anywhere from $30 on up (don't go too cheap)
If components on the drive itself fry, well, the data is probably still on the platters and recoverable but that's an expensive operation.
Answered by
priyanka
at
10:12 PM on July 04, 2008