External HD problem

[Nigel]

I have a 300gb external HD. Everything has been great with it until tonight. I was viewing some files on it when windows said there was an error accessing it. Now windows shows the drive in explorer but when i double click it, windows says it isn't formated!!!! I don't want to loose the data on the drive, it's only about 10gb's but it's all quite important. How can I get access to my data??? I haven't reformated it yet as I'm scared to do so.

Please help!!!!

 

[unofficialPete]

Try it on another PC and copy it over if it works..

 

[Nigel]

Tried it on laptop and desktop, its recognised on both but can't access the data still!

 

[FiDoDiDo]

If it gets to a stage where you have to format it to use it, make sure you recover the data first before formatting and using it again.

 

[Nigel]

What should I use to recover the data??

 

[FiDoDiDo]

What should I use to recover the data??

YHPM