[SOLVED] How to fix exterior hard drive

[fixer.maul]

So I bought an exterior hard drive for the purpose of backing up my computer. The exterior hard drive is in the format exFat. I tried running the File History backup, and it eventually failed. Ever since then, almost every time I plug that hard drive into my computer, it comes up with "There is a problem with this drive, please scan now", or something of that ilk. Also, every time I try to copy any file over to the hard drive, I get "Invalid MS-Dos function" or something or this error: The backup did successfully insert a lot of files at first, but now I can't delete or add any files to the hard drive. I bought another of the same drive, and the same thing happened. Does anyone know what I should do, or is the drive toast, and I should just get another one?

 

[popatim]

Reformat the harddrive and try again.
Remember to eject the drive before unplugging it and never unplug it while it's in use.

Which drive is it?

 

[fixer.maul]

Reformat the harddrive and try again.
Remember to eject the drive before unplugging it and never unplug it while it's in use.

Which drive is it?

Hey! Thanks for responding so quickly! What exactly do mean by "Which drive is it"? Do you mean what letter? It was "F", but then, when trying different things to fix the problem, I changed the letter to "H".

I tried formatting it (non-quick method), but it got stuck on 12%. I tried to cancel the format, but it wouldn't let me. I couldn't eject it either. So I took the drive out without formatting it (probably a bad mistake) and now windows errs every time I try to format the drive. I'm going to try formatting it from the command prompt now, (once my ext hard drive dries, I accidentally spilled water on it, when it was unplugged.) Aside from trying to format the drive from the command prompt, do you have any ideas? Or if that doesn't work, is the ext drive just toast?

 

[popatim]

The drive is done for. Replace it.

 

[popatim]

A full format only makes it to 12% - this isn't a file system issue.
This is a damaged drive issue.