asking me if i want to create a partition.

[johngood_____]

My maxtor external hard drive is suddenly showing me this message below
every time i switch on the pc.

" Either partition is not recognized or the one touch has no partition. do
you want to create one?
Warning reformatting will erase all the data."

Could anyone advise a novice on what i should best do here please?

 

[David Glienna - Owner]

Unless it's only on Vista machines, it's time to get a new drive...

 

[philo]

Unless it's only on Vista machines, it's time to get a new drive...

Very bad advice...
the drive may be fine but the external drive may have a USB controller
problem.
The surest way to find out would be to remove the drive from the enclosure
and try it directly on in internal IDE channel (or sata if the drive is that
type)

 

[David Glienna - Owner]

i've seen quite a few under warranty that simply died under vista. was
quoted 'one touch drives should be formatted as NTFS before using to store
data!'
WTH?
Who buys a one-touch to format it? Then, when it doesn't work, they want
$100 for their recovery software.

 

[johngood_____]

Thanks to all. I can still access the material stored on the hard drive, so
presumably this external hard drive is still working mechanically ok.
Should I transfer all the stored material to another drive and then wipe off
the one touch soft ware and load up another programme please? If you think
that I should do this, any recommendations for another programme one,
(preferably free or low cost) Thanks.

 

[David Glienna - Owner]

wipe it, then let Vista format it, and it will act normally.