Cyclic redundancy check

[pretty freaked]

Hello. I have a portable storage device I use for backup, 5 years worth of photos etc. I plugged it into a digital photo frame and now I have a CRC error and can´t access any data. My laptop tells me I need to format it before it will work.
HELP please tell me I can still access all mt data,
clare

 

[phil22]

Well you should have bought at least two external hard drives, using one of them as a backup, as hard drives (and especially external ones) all fail eventually.

With external hard drives, however, it's often the SATA-to-USB bridge chip inside the enclosure which fails (a small PCB). Extracting the hard drive from the enclosure and putting it into another enclosure should solve that particular problem. The enclosure you will see has no visible screws. It's held together by concealed clips around the edge. Ingenuity and a bit of leverage is required to crack it open.