Blinking Maxtor External Hard Drive

I spent too much time placing quite a lot on my 200GB Onetouch II usb/firewire Maxtor external hardrive, I'll admit that much.

But, for some reason, today it stopped being read by my computer. I tried the cables, I tried the computer, I tried everything I can think off, and the only clue I have is that the bloody thing is blinking it's blue light in a manner not described on the official website.

Scrounging around, I've heard that my only hope is to get the drive out of its shell and put it in a new one. I'd much rather not do that, so I'm hoping someone could possibly give me a second solution?

Pull it out of its shell and put it inside your PC?  If it's like most external USB/FW shells, it's a standard IDE drive inside.  3.5" USB enclosures are terribly overpriced, at $45-60/pop.  Of course, you lose the one-touch feature that your current shell offers, but it sounds like you've lost that feature anyway.