Can't access my external hard drive! HELP!

pawprinter

Hi,

I have a Lacie external hard drive, which I've had for a few years with no probs.

Yesterday, I tried to access the external hard drive and it said something like "would you like to format..yes/no"......ARGH!

I have 90GB worth of very important work on there. I don't care about all the pics, movies or music as I can get them again. I am more worried about all my accounts, university projects/portfolios - there is just so much work that I CANNOT lose. My job involves alot of project work which I can not lose - as this is my life's work in therẹ! i know it was really stupid of me not to back up.....to be honest...i thought all my work was SAFE in there as it was separate to my laptop.

PLEASE PLEASE can some one help me or give me some advicẹ

I never turn on the external hard drive when I go on the internet. I did a BitDefender online scan and they found 5 viruses on my laptop. But it wont scan my external hard drivẹ

help...please please please

Browntoa

best case its the circuit board has failed, worse case the HD

if its the first then you could buy a hdd caddy or try putting it in a PC as a slave and reading the stuff off it that way

don't attempt to install ANYTHING on the external HDD as this may overwrite sectors

could try opening up the drive unit to see if anything has come loose/unplugged

albertross_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=121274

you may be able to take the hard disk out of the enclosure and attach it to your PC with an ide cable, and possibly get at the data, (or use recovery software to get at it), that way.

Chippy_Minton

Is the drive making any noises? If so the drive components could be faulty, otherwise it's probably something electronic, e.g. circuit board.

You could try the Knoppix CD to browse the dead drive - http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=knoppix&btnG=Search&meta=

Similar problem for Mac OS here -- http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum39&Number=761942&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1

As a last resort (if it's making strange noises), Freeze your hard drive to recover data: Myth or reality?