A Problem with a Maxtor OneTouch4

[Choros]

Hi, TechSpot OpenBoards.

I recently borrowed a Maxtor OneTouch4 500gb external HD from a friend to store all my priceless personal files on while I reformatted my PC for various reasons.
That all went really smoothly yesterday, so I figured that I'd leave the files on the external HD for a little while and then transfer them onto my freshly rejuvenated PC.

About ten-fifteen minutes ago, I needed a file from the HD, so I tried to open it up--only to get a message saying "Disk is not formatted" "The disk in drive L is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"
... Uh-oh. No, I don't want to format it now. That would be... bad.

I've since opened Disk Management up in XP, and it reports that the drive has (1) no volume name, though I named it yesterday, (2) no file system assigned to it, (3) a capacity of a mere 122.70 gigabytes (this is a 500 gigabyte drive, remember), and (4) 100% of those gigabytes free.
I presume that my precious data is still somewhere in there, but I can't seem to get it out. It might be corrupted, perhaps...
I tried accessing it from a laptop running Vista, too, but it reports the exact same.

Can anyone help me...?

 

[kimsland]

Well if it's not your computer
Then the only two things left are:
USB Cable and basically the enclosure
Or the Harddrive

I personally don't think it's the Harddrive

You may need to unscrew the case and check if the Harddrive is Sata (probably)
And just temporarily mount it inside your Desktop computer (not as the main boot drive though)

Hopefully it shows in "My Computer" as a second hard drive

 

[Choros]

Well if it's not your computer
Then the only two things left are:
USB Cable and basically the enclosure
Or the Harddrive

I personally don't think it's the Harddrive

You may need to unscrew the case and check if the Harddrive is Sata (probably)
And just temporarily mount it inside your Desktop computer (not as the main boot drive though)

Hopefully it shows in "My Computer" as a second hard drive

Thanks for the quick feedback, kimsland!
Hmm. I suppose I'll try this, though it'll be a little difficult with my level of expertise. I'm not much for hardware. This external is built a little strangely, too---the only visible screws are beyond a sort of grille on the bottom.
I'll work on it, but any other suggestions in the meantime?

 

[kimsland]

I have see similar faults before
Usually the other computer showed it as ok though
These external USB drives just get into a hiccup at times