Western Digital Hard Drive - it's making me format?!

[ohbirds]

Hello everyone!

Having some problems with my WD External Hard drive (320GB) - for some reason, out of nowhere, the drive is saying I need to format it before use - but I've been using it day to day for about 12 months with no issue!

My computer can SEE the drive, but suddenly doesn't Auto-Play it - and I'd prefer not to lose all my data!

When I tell it NOT to format, the computer either tells me the drive is not accessible, or that the files are read-only (which they aren't!)

Any ideas on how I can explore the drive without having to format????

(I run Windows Vista)

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Traildriver]

Open up the enclosure, pull out the HD and install directly into your PC with a new data cable. Is your data now retreivable? Then the enclosure has a problem. If you still can't see your data then your HD is acting up. This will at least tell you where to concentrate your efforts.