Slave Drive has Vanished

[springheel]

I will hold off on the tech details for the moment...

My Computer has been running 3 hard drives (2 internal and another external) for months.
Two days ago, my intrnl slave drive vanished from MY COMP. I rebooted and all was well.
Yesterday, MY COMPUTER wouldn't let me open the internal slave drive at all. Today it asks if I want to reformat and the external drive is difficult to open directly.
I've checked the leads etc, all are tight.
The external drive is the newest addition- 6 months.

Dell 4550
C: primary 25G
F: Slave 50(?)G
H: external 100G

 

[rvnguy]

Grab the drive mfg's utils or your fav diag suite and run on this drive...see what they tell you about the health. May very well be on its way out. You might try the freezing thing; drive in a plastic zip bag in the freezer then directly to the PC and boot and transfer any thing you can salvage. Has worked in some cases.

Hate to harp, but with CD-DVD media and HD's being so inexpensive today, you really need to begin a backup routine for those files that are next to impossible to replicate. Try measuring the time and $ that you put toward this salvage effort.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[springheel]

Every diagnostic says all drives healthy.
Since the earlier post my primary drive is begining to slow down, especially windows explorer.
Thanks for the advice anyhow- especially the freezer idea.