IRQL not less or equal

[Epichall]

Each time I plug a certain external drive into my laptop (running W8.1) I receive the above error message. The same when I try it in other machines. Then, the machine goes through a "windows encountered an error and must restart" session.

This repeats for as long as I have the drive connected. When I disconnect the drive, it starts up normally.

Probably the external drive has failed, which is a shame, because there is stuff on there that I would like to retrieve. Are there any programs / utilities out there that would enable me to access the data on the drive? Not oo bothered about a reasonable cost to pay for this - I've lost a week's work and I'd like to get it back.

Thanks in advance.

 

[okcnaline]

Hm... Try to reinstall the OS. Sounds like Windows installed a bad driver for the external drive.
Better yet, lemme make sure that's the case and gimme any files from "C:\Windows\minidump".

 

[Epichall]

What's the minidump? Can you give me some step-by-step instructions to access it

Thanks

 

[okcnaline]

Press "Windows Key+R"
Type "explorer"
On the top where it says "Libraries", click there and type "C:\Windows\minidump"
Copy everything you see from that folder to the desktop, then upload to somewhere.

 

[Epichall]

Hello again.
I've found the minidump and seen a file in it, extension *.dmp.
I've tried to open it as a text file with various programs but apparently "Access to C:\Windows\Minidump\061815-19671-01.dmp was denied".
So I don't appear to be a great deal farther on.
Do you have an idea as to how I can access the file?

 

[okcnaline]

You're supposed to install a software called "BlueScreenView" by NirSoft. You're supposed to move that file to the desktop or somewhere. You're supposed to upload that file. That was part of my instructions.

 

[Epichall]

Hello again.

I'm sorry but I didn't see that in your instructions.
Anyway, I've done that now and you can see the results as an image file at
http://www.lesguis.com/images/minidump.jpg
This doesn't look particularly helpful, but of course it might be that I'm doing something wrong. That's always a possibility.

Many thanks

 

[okcnaline]

You're supposed to drag the files to the window...

 

[Epichall]

That's exactly what I did do. When I opened the program, the title bar gave me C:\Windows\Minidump.
And so I dragged the file into the window, and the title bar changed to C:\Windows\Minidump\061815-19671-01.dmp (that's the name of the file) - as you can see in the title bar of the image that I posted.

Would it be easier if I posted the file somewhere so that someone (such as yourself) who knew what they were doing could access it directly and see for themselves? It's clear from your reply that you were expecting to see something else so obviously I'm doing something wrong and we'll be going around in circles if I can't resolve this issue.

Thanks for your help (and your extraordinary patience)