External HD issue

[TecHNooB]

I have a Western Digital 400GB (caviar SE? I forget).

Anyways, for a while it has been unresponsive (does not show up in my computer). I reset it today and found that it now shows up again, but... I get the message, "This drive needs to be formatted" or something along those lines. How do I get this drive working again without reformatting? In other words, for anyone who has enountered something similar, what's a systematic way to go about fixing it. I'm pretty sure the drive itself is fine. Maybe a USB issue. How do I proceed?

 

[BlueAcolyte]

The drive may, in fact, not be fine. Download some tests (WD datalifeguard tools, HD Tune, etc.) and run them THROUGHLY.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: TecHNooB
I have a Western Digital 400GB (caviar SE? I forget).

Anyways, for a while it has been unresponsive (does not show up in my computer). I reset it today and found that it now shows up again, but... I get the message, "This drive needs to be formatted" or something along those lines. How do I get this drive working again without reformatting? In other words, for anyone who has enountered something similar, what's a systematic way to go about fixing it. I'm pretty sure the drive itself is fine. Maybe a USB issue. How do I proceed?

I've had this happen lots of times. It means the USB converter is broken. Get all of the data off the drive (if you can) then RMA it.

DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER until you've moved all data off the drive. Once that connection is gone, it might never come back. Trust me on this.