Okay, so I have held on to my 500 Gig Western Digital external hard drive for a while. It's the Scorpio Blue Model ... SATA drive. I'm wondering to get it working again, should I look into purchasing an external hard drive enclosure OR the Apricorn DriveWire Universal Adapter to try to revive the drive?

What is the problem exactly? No external SATA on your computer? Or disk broken? If the formeer, and you want to use it regularly, a real enclosure is a best solution. The universal adapters are more for people who swap disks often (filesystem repairs, tests, etc...).

Is the Scorpio Blue in an enclosure now?

If so, you need to determine if the drive is bad or if the enclosure is bad. You should be able to remove the drive from the enclosure it's in now and connect it to the internal SATA port in your computer. If the drive spins up and is accessible, you know it's a bad enclosure and you can go ahead and buy a new one. Or, you can get a mounting bracket (I believe that drive is 2.5") and just install it inside your PC.

When it was in the enclosure, it would spin and light up but my laptop wasn't reading it and this was before I got my new HP in 2012. I was still using XP at the time. I now have the drive in a plastic bag.. the freezer method didn't work.

It would just spin and light up when I would try to get it to work but the computer wouldn't read it. I've been looking online for reliable enclosures. I wish they had them in the store as well as online.

So, it's out of the enclosure now? if so, you should be able connect the drive to an internal SATA connector for testing. If the drive is bad, there is no need to buy another enclosure.

If for some reason you don't want to hook it up internally to your PC, you can buy another enclosure but if the drive is indeed bad, make sure you can easily return the enclosure. In that case, you might want to get one locally.

If the enclosure is inexpensive and you find that the old drive is indeed bad, you could just keep the enclosure and get a new drive for it.

Yes, the drive is out of it's original enclosure and in a plastic bag. I'll probably buy an enclosure for it.. maybe find one online since they aren't sold in stores.

"the computer wouldn't read it" would need a bit more definition Any error message on the computer side? Did you try to look at it with a partition manager/editor?

On the other hand anything I use for backup need to be utterly trustable. There is no point in making backups on a device that is more likely to fail that the backed up media. Any external disk with an history of problems ends up as a gift to my dearest enemies.

No, no errors were given on the computer's side and I did try Recuva and even that wouldn't read external hard drive.

So don't waste your money, get a new one. Throw that one where your enemies will see it.

Have you tried chkdsk yet?
Command line or Drive properties | Tools | Error-checking (if I remember correctly).

No, I haven't. I don't think I can do chdsk anyway since I no longer use XP. I will probably end up tossing the drive away and buying a new one.. or 2 just in case the other one malfunctions.

Sorry for digging up this old post but I thought I'd post an update. I now have an enclosure and my HP which uses Windows 7 64 bit couldn't even read it. The drive kept spinning and clicking I now believe that the Western Digital 500 external hard drive is dead. I couldn't even initialize the drive to get it to read. When I tried initializing the enclosure to work (the drive is in it), I got an error. The error I received under MBR (Master Boot Record) was: Incorrect Function. The error I received when I tried to initialize it under GPT (GUID Partition Table) was: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check). The space on the disk itself is 2048.00GB. I shook the drive (I know I should have but I did) and I could hear something rattling around in it.

If it's not a bad drive, a couple of links to check.
How to Fix a Cyclic Redundancy Check Error
Microsoft: data error cyclic redundancy check

How can I tell if the drive is bad? Even in the enclosure, the drive wasn't listed in "My Computer" and I couldn't initialize it to get it to work, so I assume the drive itself is bad. It can't be the enclosure since I received it today for a Christmas gift.

The fact the it makes a noise when you shake it is not a good sign, although it still might be OK. Have you tried a different cable?
Did you use any of the suggestions from the links or try it on another computer?
Here's Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows.
Also, if you're using a desktop computer you can connect the hard drive (without enclosure) to a spare connector from the motherboard. It involves removing the cover if you feel comfortable doing that. If you haven't done that before it can seem a bit scary but it's not that difficult if you follow the proper procedures. If you need help doing that there is lot's around here.

Long read but worth a look, Beginners Guides: Diagnosing Bad Hard Drives

The enclosure can be bad, but that can be tested by putting a disk that's known to work in it. But from what you have told us already, the disk look pretty sick. Unless you still have important data on it, don't waste time with it, even if it's not completely dead, since it is no longer a device you can trust.

I tried getting to work on our desktop that we have and it still wouldn't work.

I doubt it's the enclosure since I just got it yesterday. It's Sabrent external hard drive enclosure.. it works. The disk doesn't.

The Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is of no use to me since the drive itself can not be picked up by the computer when it's in the enclosure. I came across this site: http://www.westerndigitalrecovery.net/ I'm skeptical to try it because I don't want it to damage my external hard drive even further and possibly damage my computer. Has anyone tried this?