external hard drive unreadable or corrupted

{1}

Try rebooting the computer without any USB devices attached. Then plug in the USB drive, right click on My Computer, select manage, and then click ?Disk Management.? If the drive is not present in the Disk Management window or if you are not able to access it, then the drive may have failed. In this window you should see all of your connected physical drives, their format, if they are healthy, and the drive letter.

Change the drive letter of the drive. Right-click on the drive in the list, and from the resulting menu select "Change Drive Letters and Paths"

Click on Change so you can change the drive letter. Click Change. Select a new drive letter from the drop down list, preferably the one that is not normally used for this drive.

Click Yes on the confirmation screen and you are done.

{2}

Write down all fixed Disk and CD/DVD drive letters so as not to delete them. DO NOT delete any of the fixed hard disk drives or CD/DVD optical drives registry values.

1. Login with Administrative privileges.

2. Disconnect all USB or FireWire storage devices.

3. Open Registry Editor by typing regedt32 in the Run box and navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

4. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices there will be registry keys with the name that resembles the format of \DosDevice\X: where X can be any alphabet letter which corresponding to your physical system drive letter.

5. Delete all possible USB drives, FireWire drives and external drives which have a drive letter.

DO NOT delete any of the fixed Hard Disk Drives or CD/DVD optical drives registry values.

Exclude \DosDevice\A: which normally reserved for floppy disk drives.

{3}

Click Start and in the Run box type in cmd and press Enter.

At the command prompt type in chkdsk U:/r 'the drive letter that you just added:' EG: U: and press enter.

If it finds any discrepancies it should fix them.

Tip: The cause of unpredictable behavior in a USB drive is often found to be the incorrect removal of a previously connected USB device. When removing USB devices right click on the ?Safely Remove Hardware? icon in the menu bar tray. This is usually found in the bottom right hand corner of the monitor. Once you have clicked on the icon, a menu with a single selection should appear. Click again on that selection to see the ?Safely Remove Hardware? window. Select the correct USB device and click the ?Stop.? When you receive the message that it is safe to remove the device, unplug the USB device from the computer.

Keep us informed as to your progress if you require further assistance.

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When i try to do step 3 the box flashes up and is gone within a second...
I really hate computers!
It is my husband's hard drive otherwise if it was mine i would have given up...
I have no idea how to remove the box or put it in the computer and i am guessing it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to try considering how it was my fault in the first place.
Would you suggest paying the outragous prices and getting a professional to do it?