Error message 'the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable'

[blistgeist]

Dear techs
I hope that you can help me.
My problem refers to an external 'backup' drive that gives the above error.
I have always disconnected the usb correctly
It was working perfectly nad then...
Is this the end of my essential back up? If yes. What is the point of having one?

 

[JMMD]

Are you able to read anything on the drive? Have you tried running checkdisk or scandisk in repair mode on the drive?

The fact is, drives fail. A backup is simply supposed to be a second copy of your important data, not the only place you store your data.

 

[blistgeist]

The error message kind of says it all. If I could access it I would not have asked for help.
I am also aware that disks fail. Please do not state the obvious.
I need clear text advice as to what I actually enter into cmd prompt to attempt to run any kind of repair.

 

[DelJo63]

connect the device to your system and access the Disk Mgr

take a screen shot or describe what you see for that device.

 

[hughva]

From a command prompt: chkdsk /r (Drive letter)