Im new here sorry if this is a repeat #_#

The other day i defrag my main driver and my external driver. My External driver started to crap up and now i can't access it anymore.
its a
250gb Maxtor External driver
The error i get is

F:/ is not accessible
The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.

Ever time i click on on the driver it takes about 2-3 minutes to load that error. I try to get the drop down menu from it and it freezes the window. So i have to shut down the window. I have brought it to other computers, same thing happens. So any way to fix this without formatting it would be awesome i have like 2 years of graphics on this driver. Thanks ahead for any advice you people can give to me.