External harddrive needs formatting???

[baboontester]

I have a problem.  Well, I have a 500GB external Seagate harddrive.  Well, I have alot of data on there that I need to get off, I haven't backed it up in months (yes, thats my fault. lol) 

Anyway, I plug it in today and get the dredded "This drive needs to be formatted before use".  I can't figure out how to fix it. After a quick Google search, I went and got "Active Partition Recovery for Windows". I used the "fix boot sector" multiple times and it still doesn't work   Active Partition Recovery still says there is 108GB worth of data on the Drive, so it's still there, just how do I get to it!!??!?!

Any help would be great.

Thank you.

[patio]

How is it reported in Disk Management ? ?
Right clik it and select "Properties"...

[baboontester]

Healthy as far as I can tell   

Pic below

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2325/20407337.jpg

[baboontester]

Drive "E" in the picture

[baboontester]

Any ideas?   

[RobCr]

For future reference -
- Don't use 2.5" external drives
- Don't use enclosed external drives
- Get a Dock and a 3.5" Seagate drive
(Dock will run cooler, and have less complicated electronics)

For your current situation -
Get an external Dock (that is one where you shove a 3.5" drive vertically into it, and much of it is visible to you and to the air).
You don't say much about your external drive, but I believe most docks will also take a 2.5" drive
Try removing your drive from it's enclosure, and shove it into the dock. There is a chance that the electronics on your old enclosure are playing up.
It is worth a try.

If your drive was IDE, you can get a wee plastic thingy, with power supply, and USB  connection, for reading your IDE drive. Under $10.

[patio]

I disagree with A B and 1/2 of C in the 1st paragraph...

[patio]

I'll elaborate just a bit...
Nothing wrong with 2.5" HDD's being used as external backup/data drives...i have 2 currently being used that are 3 + years and going strong...

My favorite external enclosure uses A/C power a definite must because of the flaky USB issues i sometimes encounter with customers PC's.
It accomodates 4 different HDD styles...older laptop HDD's...SATA laptop HDD's and both SATA and IDE 3.5" HDD's.
Pretty handy as i never know what style the customers internal drives may be.

It also has a cooling fan that is switched, sturdy design, yet takes no time to open and swap drives into.

As far as docks yes they are a handy alternative...but usually limited to one style connector.

Seagate was the only thing i didn't have a problem with...

[Salmon Trout]

I disagree with A B and 1/2 of C in the 1st paragraph...

- Don't use 2.5" external drives - nonsense
- Don't use enclosed external drives - nonsense
- Get a Dock and a 3.5" Seagate drive - OK if you like docks, other brands are just as good, I have used Samsung for a few years.

(Dock will run cooler, and have less complicated electronics) this could be an issue in the tropics I suppose

[Salmon Trout]

Dock will ... have less complicated electronics

This is nonsense.