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Assuming that somewhere along the way you haven't reformatted it from the factory-installed file system (which was likely either FAT32 or NTFS) to a Linux file system, if it won't work on Linux and it won't work on Windows, my guess is that it no longer works and the timing with the Ubuntu update was coincidence. Hardware does wear out.
It might not hurt to test it with a third computer or to swap out the cable, though. (I have a WD Passport which has served me well, but it's getting up to five years old and I'm starting to think of replacing it.)
Another test under Linux would be to run fdisk -l (you may have to do this as root) and report what fdisk finds.
Edit: You might also try running an fsck on it. The link will provide examples.
Thanks a lot for your advice. I had another friend check it out on their windows system and the disk registers in control panel but not on 'my computer' so she couldn't open the contents.
This is what the report is on fdisk -l. Nothing seems to register. I am dealing with a corrupted disk then? Should I try the fsck on it? If I do will that potentially wipe other things on my computer harddrive?
Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000b515
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 39063551 19530752 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 39063552 214845439 87890944 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 214847486 234440703 9796609 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 214847488 234440703 9796608 82 Linux swap / Solaris
I would suggest that you get another hard drive that is at least as large as this one, then try using photorec to recover your data files. If that is successful, you could then try reformatting and see if that helps.
It appears that it is formatted in an ext2 type file system and if that is true, then Windows won't be able to access it unless you get the third party software to do that.
Trying to run an fsck certainly couldn't hurt, though the prognosis is likely not very positive, given that fdisk does not see the drive. It is worth a try.
I would try the photorec thing first, though, to see if I could recover anything before trying additional diagnostics.
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