If you've had a Dialogue Box pop up with the following message in it ...... you've no doubt freaked like I did, especially if that External Drive contains your most 'prized-possession' files like Films, TV Series and the like!!External HD :\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
My exact message was in fact ...
My Operating System was/is Microsoft Windows XP Professional.F:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
Okay, my research into this discovered that there are important things to remember and an action sequence you should follow.1. Do not attempt to save anything to the External Drive affected, or change anything on it for that matter!!!
2. Click the 'Start' button in the bottom left of your screen, then click on 'Run' in the listings that pop up. Type 'CHKDSK /f /r' into the space provided followed by the affected External Drive's letter ... in my case it was 'F:' [i.e. 'CHKDSK /f /r F:']. Choose YES if you are asked if you want to run a scan at the time of the next Re-Boot.
3. If CHKDSK fails to fix the problem or it even does not work at all on the affected drive, then you need to obtain two things: i) Software to access and retrieve your files from the affected External Drive; ii) enough Storage space on another drive to be able to store all the retrieved files.
4. In my case I used/bought the following Software ...
GetDataBack (from Runtime)
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm
... and, because I could not accommodate the sheer number of files anywhere in my computer system, I actually bought another slightly bigger External Drive to accommodate all my files off the affected drive.
5. It is extremely important to strictly follow the instructions at the above website, both before and after purchase of the software!!!
In the end I saved every single file off my affected External Drive safely and effectively i.e. they all work fine!!!
VI