No partition, - Noob Alert!

[Guest]

My practically new 1,5 TB external hard drive (Seagate Free Agent Desk -don't know if that info is useful or not) just stopped working and I keep getting this message : Either the partition is not recognized or there is no partition.
First of all I have no idea what a partition is. Second of all, I really really want my files back so there's no way I'm formatting the disk. Third, how can I get it back? I looked around questions from people facing wimilar issues, but after all I'm not sure if I can even use the programs people suggested without even knowing what the disappeared partition is. Other than that I know I did not do anything that would mess with important files and stuff, so any ideas on why it disappeared?
Be kind, I'm a noob but I learn fast.

 

[Guest]

so, I installed Active@ Partition Recovery and now Im waiting for the superscan to finish but there are a couple of unsettling things in the description. 1: wrong total size of disk. 2: sectors sth to sth damaged (i believe that it's safe to assume thsose are my files). 3: so far the scan has found no files.
Virus infection? is that possible?

 

[Guest]

if I format will the problem get fixed or is there a chance it might persist? What do you think?

 

[Guest]

the disk doesn't appear anywhere even though it's connected. I don't have access to the tools and stuff except the little pop up thingy that says i have to format if I want my disk back.

 

[Guest]

ok, I now what you meant now, I did that, it doesn't work. At all. Fails at stage 1 "scanning for supported drives", gives me a fatal error message.

 

[Guest]

ok the size displayed is beginning to seriously worry me. it says 4 GB. Through the Disk Management in Computer Management it seems possible to create a new volume -partition but the i think that if I do that then my drive will only have 4GB of space. Which is pointless.

 

[gtvr]

Don't format or partition, that can destroy your data.

If it's a brand new drive, I would contact the vendor for support. Hopefully you backed up your data though.

 

[Guest]

that was the disk with all the back-ups... and a couple of other stuff that didn't fit anywhere else... but I'm pretty sure by now that there isn't much that can be done about it -not even formating works -.-" - so I'm just gonna go there and ask for a replacement. After all it is only 6 minhts old and I have been perfect in taking care of it. I still have no idea why the hell it's not working.