external hd wants to re format

[sebk100]

Hello i have had a issue after using a external hd with a windows xp operating system on it in a windows 7 laptop. now it wants to format the data on it.. I have a lot of music on it organized and the time it took to do would be unbearable if it was lost lol . Could anybody point me in the right direction without having to take it to a specialist? thanks

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, sebk100.

Have you had any issues with the drive prior to this problem? Any unusual sounds/noises coming from it, low read/write speeds, hanging or freezing your system, etc?
Try the drive with a different computer and a different USB cable (preferably shorter than 12"), to see if the same thing happens. What does it say about the drive and its partition in Disk Management (you can post a screenshot and use imgur.com to upload the image)? Here's how to access it: How to access Disk Management in Windows to manage hard drives.
Other than that, you could try accessing the drive via Ubuntu Live USB, to see if the HDD is properly recognized and if you can backup your data. Another option would be to go for data recovery software, but I doubt that you'd find the files in order as you hope to, but it's better than losing them all together: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD