Windows 7: External HDD (H) Dirty

For some reason everytime I plug in my HD I get a prompt to check it for errors. I clicked "check for errors" and now the name of the HD changed back to Local Disk (H), and I can't change it it then says "The volume label is not valid". So I did some thread browsing and concluded that the disk was dirty, so I did an admin level chkdsk on it and I came up with "766f6c756d652e63 3f1". I did some more thread browsing and can't find anything on how to fix an External (only boot drives). Copying and reformatting is only a last resort as the contents total to nearly 2 TB, and my laptop isn't even close to that. Any suggestions, and I am not the greatest with computers, so dumb it down a little please?

Who manufactures the hard drive? HD Diagnostic would be a good way to go to start by running through the steps in that link. If your hard drive manufacturer does not provide diagnostic tools for your external disk, then use the SeaTools and run a short and long test on the drive. The links to the diagnostic tools are provided in the HD Diagnostic link I gave.