Data error cyclic redundancy check on external drive

[richardd]

i just bought this external HD to look at some old files on my IDE 3.5 drive. everything was working perfectly this morning. tonight i come back and turn it on, and i have this error going on. windows 7 keeps prompting me to format it. but i have lots of things i need to back up on this HD. is there any way to recover most of it? or it at all? and can you recommend the programs to do so? i would really appreciate it!

[testdummy]

I got that same error on a drive that was dieing, you can try cooling it like in a freezer to see if that helps and pulling off as much as data as possible when you plug it back in. Beware of condensation issues though.

That or check to make sure all your cables are tight and its getting enough power. I used to use getdataback for data recovery that had been wiped/lost. I dunno if thats still currently a nice program.

[richardd]

hey, thanks for your response i checked my IDE cables, and tried putting it back in my tower, but it still gave me the same error. So i did some research and found a program called Active@ File Recovery, which works on windows 7. And let me tell you, it works FLAWLESSLY. it was able to recover 99% of the files i wanted. After the recovery, i was able to format the external HD once more, and now its back to normal and no errors. So problem is fixed thanks again for your input, though!

[testdummy]

Cool, i'm glad it worked out. Now I gotta file that prog away for future use lol.