Windows Explorer Error Followed By Dr Watson

[dazuk1972]

I installed an external hard drive in my PC that runs from Windows XP back in December. Things were OK at first. I created different shortcuts on my Desktop for different folders. When I entered that external hard drive through My Computer at one point, my Pc was giving me an error each time. I forgot what it said but no errors came when I entered that hard drive through the shortcuts on my Desktop. Then when I entered that hard drive through My Computer I was getting an Windows Explorer error, then some Dr. Watson Debugging error followed that froze my PC. When I went into that external hard through the shortcuts on my Desktop, thing were still fine. Somehow when I entered that external hard drive through my shortcuts on my Desktop, things were always fine. Something about entering it through My Computer was bad. Now, when I enter that external hard drive through My Computer and through my shortcuts on my Desktop, I'm always getting that Windows Explorer error followed by that Dr. Watson Debugging error that freezes my PC at all times. I'm somehow locked from accessing my new external hard drive now because of those errors that causes my PC to freeze and it causes me to reboot seconds after I enter that external hard drive in any way. I'm worried sick that I have lost so many important files that run over 70GB's.

What is causing this and how do I fix it?

Please help me because I'm so desperate. Part of my life is in that hard drive.

Many thanks.

[MilesAhead]

Is it a USB 2.0 drive? See if you can try it on another machine. If you can, run diagnostics downloaded from the manufacturer. Usually when stuff gets steadily worse on the HD it's because the number of retries goes up as it takes more and more attempts to get or write the data.

If it checks out ok on another machine then maybe it's the controller on your PC.

edit: or it could be malware. See if someone will let you scan it with malwarebytes.