WD My Passport external hard drive is not accessible

Good day,

I hope there's somebody out there that can help me.
First let me say, I have my child's pictures and videos of birth until now on my hard drive - formatting is not an option!*

So, the usual way to access my hard drive, I connect it via USB port. On my computer window, it appears under hard disk drives. I double click and then the drive opens up and takes me to the software - i choose to unlock the drive and the window appears and asks for password. Once password is inserted and correct, the drive automatically opens up in a new window and all my data is shown.

Now, when I connect the drive and open up my computer, the drive name appears under devices with removable storage as a CD-drive. I double click to open, the same software is there to unlock. I choose to unlock and put in password. Then it opens up under hard disk drives as a different hard drive name e.g local disk (I:).

When I double click on it, it gives an error message: I:/ is not accessible. The Parameter is incorrect.

My brother-in-law checked the drive system properties and advanced system properties. It does show as disk drive.

Your help will be much appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Renette