i have an external 1TB western digital HDD. for some weeks now it has become suddenly unresponsive and very slow to the point when i connect it to d system, it hangs windows explorer for quite sometime.

pls how can i solve this problem as i hv a lot of data stored in it (over 500GB) and will not like to lose it cos they are very important & can set me back.
it even refuses to defragment or repair when i try to use that option.
im considering buying another one but the cost is quite much, hence i'd like to know if there is anyway i can get around it.


thanks