Diagnostic steps:
Check Power: Since you can hear (or feel) the xHDD actually spinning, then you know it has power.
Check Cable: I presume this is a USB-connected xHHD. Try using a USB cable that you have verified works by using it to connect other devices. Example: If you use a cable to plug in your smartphone to your PC and the PC sees the phone, then you know the cable isn't damaged. Sometimes they pins in the ends get bent.
If you have another xHHD that still works, try plugging it into the PC using this cable, to verify the cable.
Check PC: While both the PC and xHDD are powered up, try unplugging the xHHD and then plugging it back into PC. (USBs are 'hot-pluggable', ie they work better if plugged in after powering up). If this doesn't work, repeat after powering everything down, waiting at least 1 minute, then restarting everything.
Recover Data from dead xHDD: If the above steps fail, then you should consider the drive 'dead' and replace it.
However! All is not lost (pun intended): All USB xHHDs (or the vast majority that I've heard about), are really internal HDDs mounted in a box that has a circuit board that converts USB coming in to the SATA that all drives actually use. Typically, this board fails
much sooner than the actual drive. You now need to evaluate how much money and effort you feel is worth attempting to get it's data. If it's super valuable, or irreplaceable, take the drive to a Data Restoration Specialty firm.
They will charge anywhere from $50 to look at it, to several hundred dollars to squeeze out the data, to $1-2,000 to transplant the internal platters over to a working drive.
If you are even a little bit handy, there's a step you should try first.
Open up the xHHDs case and extract the internal HDD from within it. Don't worry about damaging the case, or it's circuit board, they aren't needed. Then with the now-internal drive, try to use a xHDD docking station to pull the data out of it and into your PC.
For this, use a very cheap and easy to use Hard Drive external docking station, Amazon $20:
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters.../dp/B0099TX7O4
I've owned about 20 xHHDs and have about half fail, usually after 3-4 years of operation.
In the past, it was a pretty big hassle to loose data, as the externals seem to fail 3-4 times as often as same-size/brand internal drives. But with the price drops, you can get 5 terabyte drives for $120, so I now just keep each external drive backed up to another external drive.
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