External Hard Drive Windows Explorer Not Responding

I have a x64 windows 7 and an iomega eGo external hard drive. The external hasn't been used in a while, it's just been sitting in my desk drawer. I'm trying to see if I have any files on it, but every time I plug it in, and try to open it, the green loading bar in Windows Explorer moves to the end but never finishes and the program (Windows Explorer) stops responding.

I don't think I have any really important files on there, I think I've moved them , so if I have to reformat it or anything it should be okay. But is there anything else I can do?

That worked! The device driver reinstalled and when I opened it I get the option to reformat it. I will do that, as as I said I don't think I have anything important on it.

Thank you!

EDIT: Oh but not it's saying it was unable to format it.

What is the exact error message you get?

Please post a screenshot of the drive in Disk Management.

according to this it's healthy. not sure what else could be wrong.

Perhaps you missed it.

What is the exact error message you get when you try to format it?

Perhaps you have gone to sleep. And perhaps when you return, I may be missing/gone to sleep.:)

So I leave below some of the things you can try.

1. If you want to try partition recovery to check whether you have any important data:

Download and install Minitools Partition Wizard Home Edition 8.1.1 Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online and run Partition Recovery Wizard in it.

Help:Follow the recovery process under the heading "Recovery with Partition Wizard: SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB" in the thread Recover a flash drive turned RAW – Partition Wizard and TestDisk. ( In your case instead of the pendrive, it will be your external drive.)

2. If you are intent on straightaway formatting the drive:

1. Download HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool 2.2.3 the Swiss Army Knife at HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool Free Download . Right click on the .exe file, run as administrator and try to format it. If it fails,

2. Try to do a low-level format with HDD LLF Format Tool v4.40 (download the Windows Executable that doesn't need installation). Make sure that you select the correct drive. If the low level format goes through successfully, you have to do a regular format.

jumanji said:

1. If you want to try partition recovery to check whether you have any important data:

Download and install Minitools Partition Wizard Home Edition 8.1.1 Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online and run Partition Recovery Wizard in it.

Help:Follow the recovery process under the heading "Recovery with Partition Wizard: SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB" in the thread Recover a flash drive turned RAW – Partition Wizard and TestDisk. ( In your case instead of the pendrive, it will be your external drive.)

I'm trying to use this, but the program stops responding every 3 minutes which is making the whole process go even slower. It still has 600 000 000 more sectors to scan.