Open a command window and run chkdsk h: /f
If that doesn't fix it, would you be willing to take the hard drive out of it's case and connect directly to the IDE cable? If you do, make sure the jumper is set to slave or cable select if you use the 2nd IDE connector.
If you still can't read from IDE, buy data recovery software and try. Otherwise, note that data recovery by professionals is NOT CHEAP!
I have an external HD less than 2 years old loaded with 200gb of information. Two days ago I was copying to and from it and in that same session suddenly I got an error (I can't remember exactly what the error said, but it suddenly occurred either as I tried to "remove hardware" to eject it or as I simply clicked on the drive to access the contents) and now my drive is detected but not readable. It shows up in My Computer but the My Computer window no longer displays the used and free space on this drive. If I click "Properties" for the drive it lists the used & free space each as ZERO. When I click on the drive it says "H:\ is no accessible. The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable." I took a look at the Disk Management (right clicked on My Computer, selected Manage, clicked on Disk Management under Storage) and it lists the drive as "Healthy". I tried to restart the computer, even reinstalled windows, and still the same problem. I don't have another computer to try the drive on right now. I have 200gb of information that I really want to get back! I was about to buy a 500gb drive this past week due to running out of space and was going to transfer all the info and now this happens right before I can get the new drive. HELP!
I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP2. I can't tell you what type of drive it is but I got it at Fry's and it was fine for the past 2 years or so with light use. I think it was formated NTFS, I'm pretty sure of it.
If you can help, PLEASE DO! THANKS!

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