USB external HD decides to stop working

[neilm]

Basically a Western Digital 320GB decided to give the following message today:
The disk in drive G is not formatted
Do you want to format it now?

Of course I clicked no each time its appeared, but is there anyway to fix this problem/dilemma/nightmare? It was working fine last night.

Thanks for any help on this...

 

[neilm]

Hmm. Seems like turning it off, and plugging it into a different USB port worked. Interesting.

 

[Xsorovan]

Just an FYI, but you MIGHT want to run a Check Disk on the drive. External drives are pretty notorious for just failing all of a sudden. This could be a pretty good indication that it's thinking about quitting.

Also a helpful little hint as well, the external drives last longer if you power them down (turn them off) when not using them. (VS leaving them plugged in and spinning) But of course external drives are of a dubious reliability anyway...

Hope it was a fluke and doesn't drop out on you...