Q
I have seemingly lost some Word
and Excel files from my 560GB
Maxtor external
hard disk. Also,
Windows keeps popping
up with a message
stating “you need to
format this drive”. Other
stuffon the hard disk
seems to be intact. Do
you have any
suggestions?
Mandeep Sigh
A
Our main
suggestion is
that your hard
disk may be failing. You
didn’t give us many
other details but
disappearing files and that persistent
message might well be symptoms of
impending disaster. So, make sure you’ve
got all your files backed up – right away.
Next, download a free copy
of Seagate’s SeaTools for
Windows (www.snipca.
com/8979). Seagate now
owns the Maxtor brand and
SeaTools is its comprehensive
disk-testing tool.
 |
| If your Seagate or Maxtor hard disk is playing up, test it using SeaTools software |
Once
installed, tick the box
representing your Maxtor
drive and open Basic Tests to
begin working through the
tests. Seagate has published a
detailed guide to using
SeaTools, including what to
do if problems are found and
how to recover corrupted
files at www.snipca.
com/8980.