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I am not able to access my external hard drive. Whenever I try to do it say "Drive not formatted. Want to format it?" What should I do if will format, I will loose all my important data.

How should I get back my data. Please recommend any tool which will help in recovery.

Try starting in Safe Mode (by pressing F8 when computer first begins to start- then select Safe Mode)

If it boots fine and works regular- back up all your personal stuff asap.

Did you install / download anything recently?

It is possible that the hard drive may be failing or that some virus or some other bad stuff got ahold of your computer. In the event that it is a virus or something you downloaded/installed- you could do a System Restore (If you are using windows XP as listed in your signature). System Restore would re-set the computer to a point before these problems occured. If it is a failing drive- this will not help.

I'm the least techi person on here,I just lifted this off the internet.

Good luck and welcome to FG. :-6

Don't connect your problem drive to a computer until you understand what will happen. Talking to us will give you a good idea what to do or who else to ask. I suggest you disconnect the problem drive from of the computer if you feel comfortable doing that.

May we ask some questions before we offer advice? Here are mine:

Do you live near a university which teaches sciences to undergraduate students?

I assume the problem drive uses a USB 2 connection and that your desktop has a USB 2 socket, is that right?

What is the model of the disk drive? There will be a model code like for example WDC3020A written on the label somewhere. If you can't find it, do you know the disk capacity?

What file system was it formatted as when it held your important data?

What sort of files are your important data in? Are they for example pictures, or documents, or spreadsheets?

Roughly what space do your important data take, for example 10MB, 100MB, 1GB, 10GB, 100GB.

Will your computer boot without the problem drive connected? What operating system does it boot into. Do you have another desktop PC available for recovery if we need to use one?

Does your computer have a CD-ROM / CD writer / DVD-ROM / DVD writer? Which? Do you own any blank or rewritable media? Do you own a flash memory stick? If you do, how much can it hold?

Try the drive on another computer. Don't assume the drive is faulty it could be the computer. If contents are crucial best take it to an expert. When fixed get two external drives-just in case.