Windows 7: Windows 7 will not let me access my 3TB external HDD anymore :(

Alrighty then...game on. Whether or not this works I want to say thank you for your quick response and your assistance. I'll follow this to the letter and let you know what happens.

Not a problem mate, that's what we're here for.

Ok...so I downloaded SeaTools and ran the program...after "looking for compatible devices" for about 10-15mins my entire system shut down. I rebooted and again tried to start the program with the same results...much quicker this time though...so when my computer was booting up this time I told it to go into safe mode and IMMEDIATELY after I hit enter to make the selection for safe mode my computer died again....I'm currently on my laptop...

Forgive me if I'm mistaken....but that wasn't supposed to happen.... >.<

Oh dear me,

That definitely wasn't supposed to happen.. I don't see how seatools can flummox your system like that. Unplug that problematic drive from your computer and try to reboot again?

EDIT:- Scratch that, unplug all unnecessary devices from your desktop (extra USB devices, drives etc, except for your input devices) and reboot

About data recovery and such...the link you posted above to Easus...have you used that software before and is there a good chance that it will work?

I have no problem dropping an additional $70 to fix this...

To be honest, it's sort of the go to software the gurus recommend on this forum (at least the free version (home)) to recover vital data.. The free version has limits on recoverable data amounts obviously

Personally, I haven't used it myself. I never had the need to so far, I use Acronis True Image Home and Disk Director to handle my drives and clone/image them but they're both obviously pointless in this particular scenario.

Did you manage to get your desktop up and running again?

EDIT:-

I forgot to mention there are some other alternatives as well if you're so inclined.

http://www.easeus.com/partition-recovery/

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Yes I did. Funny...it's asking me if i want to install new software for one of the features of the broken drive >.<

I was reading on someone else's thread and they were able to hook their drive to another computer and it worked...dare i try this with my laptop?

There would be no way to recover ALL of the material I want off of there but i could at least get some of the harder to replace items and try to recover the rest later...

Ah yes, that's another thing you can try. Also consider the alternative software i linked to in my previous post for your perusal.

On my desktop again. Of note...the windows recovery program gave the boot to SeaTools. It's no longer installed on my computer.

I'm going to try to briefly plug up to my laptop. I took a look at your suggestions, but since this isn't exactly deleted anything yet i don't think it will do me any good.

If switching machines doesn't work then I'll go with one of the three programs you suggested. I don't know how this will go but at this point I'm needing to go to sleep for work. This will be the last thing i try before leaving this for tomorrow.

--EDIT--

Hooked it up to a buddies computer and it just sat there.... going to look into warranty info tomorrow and also the software selections you gave me above...If you think of anything else I'll be watching this thread tomorrow. Thanks for all of your help.

All the best with your recovery mate, it's always mortifying to have our 'babies' get sick like this....