OK, I went to back up all my important info to my external detachable hard drive today and just like last time it said the disk was corrupt and had to be reformatted. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? After I backup my info I detach it, so it shouldn't be subject to power spikes or anything else. I'm only backing up documents and pics, so I'm not sure why there is such a problem.
Any ideas on what is going on?

Check the manufacturers website for some disk diagnostic tools. Run the tools and make sure there aren't any bad clusters. If that doesn't work, assuming the drive is USB, make sure when done that you go up into the system area (where clock is) and left click on the USB icon, and say "safely remove hardware". That will send a kill signal and shut it down so it can be removed without some other application accessing the data.

Let me know if it helps.

Good info Eric! I screwed up a creative mp3 player by not clicking on the "safe to remove hardware" icon. Just glad it wasn't mine! Won't do that again!

Probably nothing serious BG, just like Rad says, check it out with the mfgr. disk check diagnostics.

I always do the "safely remove thing". However, the problem has deepened. My 2 year old ran in the room and hit escape while I was trying to reformat the hard drive. Now it will not let me reformat it and crashes the computer when I try. It gets to the point where it says it cannot reformat and brings up a retry or cancel option (I think), but the computer just freezes up.

Hey BG, usually inside an external hard drive enclosure is a regular internal IDE hard drive. You could open it, remove the drive and slave it to your computer. Then you just format it from there, put it back into the enclosure and back in business. Worth a try anyway.



-Pain

Do a search for partition magic. If you need I can upload it were you can use it. Be carefull, it is an extremely powerful tool. It will format anything. I'd give it try before opening the external up.

to fix: bend at the knees, lift, and toss as high as possible. Move. Watch pieces go everywhere. PC problem solved. I hate computers.

To be honest, for the fact that 2+ years ago I bought this for storage and it has nothing on it, I can buy the same size hard drive for half the price. So, I'm tempted to just go buy a new one for $30 and say to hell with it.

Usually the guide for the added hardware will give info too on how to use the safe-to-remove icon. Sometimes it's more than just that one-click step.... may involve a 'remove item' step from the hard drive too before clicking on the icon for example.

Try out these guys too... the best free help you can get online for pc issues;
http://forums.techguy.org/21-windows-nt-2000-xp/

Also, invest in a UPS [uninterruptable power supply] if you can [not a cheap one]. It'll help you avoid issues like brown-outs / surges/ blackouts/spikes -better than a surge protector.

hey guys this might be a dumb question but with my last computer that went down (hard drive fried,no ntlds?) i had an external hd and i actually lost all the data/pic/music etc... on it as well.

my question is i have a new one and new comp ive backed up my c drive basicly but im scared to turn it off or unplug it ,should it be unplugged ? i also have norton ghost and have everything backd up there too. just dont want to lose everything again.

I would think you could unplug it and shut it down when it's not in use. I would follow any user manuals that came with it of course, but once you shut down your pc, or get the "safe to remove hardware" while still operating, you should be ok to power the external HD down.

I run an internal backup HD in my system that I download to, store pics, software etc. Whenever I format my machine I always disconnect the cables and power to that HD so that it doesn't become part of the format. When the main drive (C:) is up and running again with a fresh copy of the operating system, I then reconnect the secondary HD and all those stored files are right where I left them. I would say that your external should work the same way and powering it down and removing it from your system when it's not needed is fine.

It should be ok to unplug... I've unplugged while comp was stuck in post bios screen. I left comp. off a few minutes then restarted after plugging it back in and all restarted fine. No lost files. XP is pretty good at starting back at its 'previous' working order settings. -touch wood.