Free PC Support

[barkbythorpe]

I have an external hard drive (D) in an add on HDD enclosure with all my files onboard that all of a sudden I cant access. The computer recognises the device but relays a message saying that files are corrupted and unreadable.
.......Ive tried the external HDD on another computer and have the same problem.....The enclosurers on board function light is operational and ave measured the 12v and 5v supply to the HDD and thats OK and the HDD appears to be whirring away and operating.........CAN U HELP??

[JonS]

maybe the drive has failed - in which case your chances of getting data back are slim.
maybe the drive has simply become confused over file location / allocation - in which case performing the command chkdsk d: /r from a command prompt may restore things
maybe the drive has become so badly corrupted or virused that running chkdsk will make things worse and destroy whatever is left

If it were mine
1) first I'd download and run Recuva (a free program from Pitoform) scan the drive and see if it finds any lost files
2) if it doesn't I'd try again with a program called "GetDataBack for NTFS". You have to pay for that, but the free trial version should show if any files are recoverable
3) after that try chkdsk D: /r and see what happens. If that fails then the drive is probably u/s, though you may be able to do a software repair on it by scanning with the manufacturers tools to map out any bad sectors. However if you have to do that to a drive, you can never trust it again