i have a maxtor 80gig hard drive and it crashed, but i have a lot of information on it that i need....

is there a way to retireve this information?

when i try to access the drive, windows says, :the disk in drive d is not formatted.  do you want to format now?"

is there a way to retrieve information?  suggestions would be appreciated.....thanks!Yup.  But "how" depends on what you think happened and how valuable your data is.

If your HD is truly "belly-up" that is, boot/id/etc. sectors are wiped or corrupted, you may be able to fix it with some utilities available.

Apparently your operating system/BIOS recognizes the drive or it wouldn't ask you to format.  Do you use some sort of BIOS OVERLAY (Maxtor uses these for older PCs)?  If so, try to recover the drive using their setup/tools disk.  Try reloading/resetting the "overlay."

Bottom line is you can have a data recovery service save the data, but they can be expensive.

And, as you know, don't format the drive or you will make data recovery a lot tougher or impossible.

Dellim sorry, i dont know what all this means.....im still new at using computers.....

but here is another problem.....SOMETIMES, the drive doesnt show up in the "my computer" icon......also, the computer sometimes doesnt recognize it properly......instead of identifying it as a maxtor drive, it just names it a bunch of random numbers and letters and symbols.  

also, this has happened before.  it says the format thing, but if i restart the computer, the drive works again!  should i just buy a brand new drive?  

to recover the data, is there something that i, myself, can do without help?  i dont really want to bring my hard drive to some place and have to pay money if i can just do it myself......i know this is asking a lot, but i want to know how to fix my own computer!  You can try Norton Utilities' Disk Doctor if you have it.  Sometimes it can fix access problems.

But, it sounds like you need to reload the Maxtor overlay for your drive.  This utility adds functionality to your system BIOS and manages your drive.

The overlay/setup utilities are here:  http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.57739892ade91820a727116291346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Product%20Support

You will need to know what type and model drive you have, and the operating system you are using (WinXP, Win98, WinMe, etc.).

Step-by-step instructions should be included with your download.

Good Luck!

Delljgnavarrete.......Well......If you are able to restart and access the drive ......I would be copying what you want saved to some other MEDIA...........cd's...... then at least you have the data you don't want to lose.
It sounds like the hard drive my be giving out ...so save as much as possible ......ASAP.

dl65  
Quote

jgnavarrete.......Well......If you are able to restart and access the drive ......I would be copying what you want saved to some other media...........cd's...... then at least you have the data you don't want to lose.
It sounds like the hard drive my be giving out ...so save as much as possible ......ASAP.

dl65  

Sometimes, the drive doesn't show up in the "My computer" icon. Also, the computer sometimes doesn't recognize it properly.

Instead of identifying it as a Maxtor drive, it just names it using random numbers, letters and symbols.

This has happened before.  It says the format thing, but if I restart the computer, the drive works again!  Should I just buy a brand new drive?  

To recover the data, is there something that I can do without help?

I don't really want to take my hard drive to someone and have to pay money if I can just do it myself.

I know this is asking a lot, but I would like to know how to fix my own computer!