Computer nerd question

[Larry Schuler]

My external hard drive is corrupted and I have a ton of music and family photos on there I'd rather not erase by formatting the drive. Is there a way to partition the drive without erasing everything on it? Right now I can't even open or explore the drive, I keep getting a "not accessible" error.

Any advice is appreciated.

[oneupper]

Do not fret. You can probably recover most of your information, as long as the drive is operational.

There is software that allows you to recover files off bad drives. I use a program called Data Resue II....but it's for Mac. I'm sure there are several equivalents on the pc side.

For now, disconnect the drive, don't save anything onto it, erase or format it.
I'm sure another poster will give you a more complete solution.

[Larry Schuler]

Well, actually I'm running PC Inspector which is a file recovery program and that is letting me at least look at my files and folder structure. I just need to figure out how to "rescue" these files without having to move 100GB of music onto another drive, format it, then move it back. I'd prefer to find a way to "partition" or correct the drive, without moving everything off of it. If that is possible.

[Larry Schuler]

Wow. I did some research and decided to try a technique called "reseating", which is unplugging all the cords and plugging them back in.

It worked!

[SunDeck]

Wow. I did some research and decided to try a technique called "reseating", which is unplugging all the cords and plugging them back in.

That "technique" actually has a name? What do they call pressing the enter key?

[KronoRed]

That "technique" actually has a name? What do they call pressing the enter key?

Inputting.

[Unassisted]

Wow. I did some research and decided to try a technique called "reseating", which is unplugging all the cords and plugging them back in.

It worked!Even so, you should probably consider replacing the drive, or moving the contents to a larger drive while it's working. Your drive just gave you a warning shot. The next time, the fix may not be so cheap.

[westofyou]

Even so, you should probably consider replacing the drive, or moving the contents to a larger drive while it's working. Your drive just gave you a warning shot. The next time, the fix may not be so cheap.

Yep, worse case scenario save the stuff you want onto a cheaper external drive ASAP.

[cincyinco]

External drives are extremely affordable these days. I believe I've seen terra drives for about 200 at microcenter.