Computer Hope

Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: ali_farhan1984 on October 14, 2007, 08:19:20 AM

Title: external hard drive problem
Post by: ali_farhan1984 on October 14, 2007, 08:19:20 AM

hi, i've got an external hard drive that is connected to my PC with windows XP professional (no service packs). for the last 2 years it's been working fine, but today i switched the external hard drive on and when I tried to open the hard drive from My Computer the following comes up:

'J:\ is not accessible.

The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable.'

Does anybody know what I can do because I've got so many files that I need that are on the hard drive.

Thanks.

Title: Re: external hard drive problem
Post by: patio on October 14, 2007, 08:25:58 AM

Try and run chkdsk /r on it...
You really need to get SP2 on that machine...it's not just a security fix but a major OS upgrade.

Title: Re: external hard drive problem
Post by: ali_farhan1984 on October 14, 2007, 08:40:08 AM

i've run chkdsk but nothing comes up

Title: Re: external hard drive problem
Post by: patio on October 14, 2007, 09:23:39 AM

How is the drive being reported ? ?
Right click My Computer and select Manage...
Then select Disk Management...
Right clik the drive and select Properties...
Report back what it says and pray that it isn't "RAW"....

Title: Re: external hard drive problem
Post by: ali_farhan1984 on October 14, 2007, 10:15:42 AM

i rebooted the computer and it went through check disk - everything is OK now.  thanks for the help.

Title: Re: external hard drive problem
Post by: Captain Jack Harkness on May 15, 2008, 07:16:20 PM

Quote from: patio on October 14, 2007, 09:23:39 AM

How is the drive being reported ? ?
Right click My Computer and select Manage...
Then select Disk Management...
Right clik the drive and select Properties...
Report back what it says and pray that it isn't "RAW"....

What happens if it does say RAW? That happened to my External HDD too. Is that bad?

Title: Re: external hard drive problem
Post by: patio on May 16, 2008, 06:35:34 AM

Quote from: Captain Jack Harkness on May 15, 2008, 07:16:20 PM

Quote from: patio on October 14, 2007, 09:23:39 AM

How is the drive being reported ? ?
Right click My Computer and select Manage...
Then select Disk Management...
Right clik the drive and select Properties...
Report back what it says and pray that it isn't "RAW"....

What happens if it does say RAW? That happened to my External HDD too. Is that bad?

It generally means that the drive was un-plugged prematurely or without using the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature and the Data is gone...