External hard drive problems

[Danirl]

I just bought a new computer, and was taking stuff off my external so I could have space to relocate from my old computer to my new one. After transferring about 400Gigs off my external, I plugged it in after work (about 10 hours after It had finished). It makes the windows sound showing its recognized, and the icon at the bottom right shows up (for safely removing it, ect). The icon shows up on my computer list of drivers, but it doesn't show the space left or anything, its just sais "Local disk (F, and the loading bar continues to load like its trying to read it. However, even after leaving it, nothing happens. Even if I click safely remove nothing happens. After unplugging it, all the actions that I tried involving the external happen at once (checking properties, the safely remove screen) and it also tells me there was a problem with the external and it needs to be formatted.
I'm wondering if its something simple or seriously wrong with it? It has very sensitive material on it, so formatting it is simply out of the question. Is there anyway to get it working again, or at least get the information off of the external drive?

Thanks in advance

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Perhaps you can take a look at videos in topic: "Data Stick Not Working" to see if something there really fits what you are experiencing. Most likely to be relatively simple fix, but 'which one?'. Since you are on the spot, you are best suited to working that out with a bit more knowledge. Take your time, make careful notes.