Google broken? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265 http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm Also, whatever you use to connect your HDD to your mobo - try a new one.
Have you scanned your compputer?Maybe it's caused by virus. Or something is wrong with the disk,you can check it to find what happeded.
I used them once when i was too busy to handle it myself. They are good. @lenney, what OS are you using anyways? you said external HDD? that should be easier to deal with than the internal one..
I would like to recommend you a little recipe on HD. If you are sure your hard disk has collapsed, and you get any data from it again, don't timely throw it. You can encase it using Plastic Wrap and put it in the fridge for one night. Then something magical will happen.Try it.
It may occur due to OS corruption, try to view the files via Explore option, else you have to format the HDD..
Steve, aint tried the fridge trick, hmmm, lenny, what sort of external? I had one did somethin similar n still can't access it. As stated before, theres a lot of reasons. Could be a virus, a rewrite in registry somewhere, a fail on the drive and more. If you can ghost the HD you can @ least get data. The GRC site is great and that man is a genius, his programs are small and effecient. Not so many people I know even use assembly code for progs so I like using his stuff. Alsohow long have you had it, you may need to clean it like you would with a normal comp, clean out the dust. Lemme kno, I'll give you what info I can, and the other posts are on spot as well.
Is that a partition drive? if so try to access it at DOS base, the the problem would be a virus that blocks you from accessing that drive.
i am running windows xp it is just an external hard drive i managed to get access to the drive via get data back which saved my work i still can not click it via my computer as for putting it in a fridge i would not like to try it
XP sucks in a lot of ways. I was used to being able to access certain areas I have to dig for now. Have you tried restoring to a previous save point? Also do you have another comp you could hook it to? That one might recognize it for data retrieval at least. But make sure you have a good A/V prog on the comp. Your extreme would be to stop boot and enter the pre-windows and see if BIOS can find on source comp and get data, but that seems extreme to me, and also beyond me to explain and help on. You could also take to bestbuy or something similar and pay, but thats no promise and no help from here either way. Its not a write off on getting to the data, its just a slowdown.