Until a few days ago my 1TB Western Digital external harddrive was working perfectly. I tried opening J: and I hear this faint click in the background and Windows tells me it cannot access drive J: .After another try a pop-up message tells me my drive has experienced a CRC error and then it immediately gives me the option of formatting to which i click no. I tried right clicking drive J: on my Computer but the Folder would just freeze or become very slow. After doing some research on how to tackle the problem, I ran "checkdisk J:/f which brought out an ms-dos window. Roughly about 15 minutes later an NTFS appeared below my Drive and even its Name was now showing (Kraz). However the properties menu claims the drive is empty and i still cannot access any of my important folders. Is there a way for me to fix my hard drive without deleting my files and folders. Its a new Hard drive, been only using it for 4 months tops.

Your drive is dead, It doesn't matter how old it is, it's about usage.

You can try and Run a live CD linux OS I have had limited success in getting it read in Linux with similar situation.

Try Ubuntu.com download the ISO burn and Run it from CD.

4 months old I hope you registered your drive contact Western Digital they should replace it. If you did not register it contact them and have the S/# of the unit and the part# (THIS ONES A MAYBE) might not have a part number. It has a one year warranty you might need your sales slip. If you got it at Staples or some store like that take it back to them.
These drivers are infamous for this problem
Regards
Dock

I dont think its dead, just recently I ran check disk again and the autoplay pops up now. The only problem is when i click on open windows an error message comes up "windows cannot access the drive J:" Im not giving up just yet, too many memories to throw away. What about SpinRight, i researched it and its got a 84% success rate, at least if i can't fix all the bad sectors i can still salvage the rest. Im not giving up just yet.

Try putting the drive in the computer. and Running Linux Live CD, it works for me 60% of the time.

Hey im a bit of a noob, would you mind running me through it ?

Download and Burn Ubuntu

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

Then put the CD in the Drive and let the computer boot to the CD,

When the Cd loads it will ask you if you wish to install or Try.

Choose try and let everything load, as t will be running on the CD it will feel a little slow. Once in click on places at the top left corner and choose your drive, it should just work. if it's not mounted tell me I will explain that too.

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