Error opening hard disk

[imjm]

I have a toshiba hard disk that used to work properly and now I can't open it. whenever I try to open it a DOS window opens and I get the following error message:

the ntvdm cpu has encountered an illegal instruction

What should I do?

 

[Archean]

"whenever I try to open it a DOS window opens and I get the following error message:
the ntvdm cpu has encountered an illegal instruction"

Please clarify how you try to open it? what your OS? and if you go to windows command prompt and manually try to go to that HDD (e.g. d:\ and press enter) ...... does it work?

 

[imjm]

I try opening it by either double clicking on it, or right click "Explore"
OS: Windows XP Professional
opening it through DOS doesn't work

 

[Archean]

Download TestDisk from here, I have no idea at the moment about how well conversant you are with the computers, but is pretty easy; you just need to follow the instructions and choose the hdd/partition you want to fix.

Good luck and let me know if you have any issues. Regards