Hi there bloemetjebloemetje,
That is really unpleasant.
What did the error message say?
I believe you can start with several simple steps. Just grab a spare USB cable and attach the drive with it to another computer.
In case the issue persists, you will need to provide some more information on whether the drive is recognized by Disk Management and how.
What happened when you used the partition/data recovery tool? What do you mean by not working?
Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD