I have a USB Smartdisk 500 GB external hard drive. On it I have some important pictures and data I can't get at. When I try to open it, I get the message that it is not formatted - would I like to format now? I have checked in disc management - it says that it is a healthy drive - but not formatted.Formatting is not an option. I need the data on it. How am I going to get the data and pics from it if I cannot see them on the drive? Any suggestions? This drive is a year old, and was on my sister's (similar) pc. I brought it home to mine so I could work on the problem. Sure could use some help. Thank you for your time.

Try accessing the drive using Knoppix. Knoppix may be able to recover files if the drive is not physically damaged. It sounds like the file system is corrupted. You can also try using testdisk. However, writing anything to the drive is not a good idea. Now is probably not a good idea to remind you about making backups.

Have you disconnected the drive and rebooted, then reconnected it? Check out the Data Recovery option on the Forum Lists. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

You could use 'GetDataBack'. http://www.runtime.org/ It is an excellent file recovery program.

aegis, that's where the Data Recovery link takes you. :) "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Thank you all. I found and downloaded a free program called PC Inspector File Recovery. Worked like a charm. Not too tough to use,either.