External Hard Drive

The external hard drive is not working, Is not being seen on the computer but at first when it is started it is being seen

 

has it worked before? Is it getting power?

if its a new drive and you havent used it, it could simply be unformatted. To format a new drive, plug it in, then right click on My Computer and choose "Manage". In Computer Management, on the left hand frame under Storage, click on Disk Management. There you will see all the hard drives and other drives in your computer listed on the right. Choose the new drive, and partition and format it using NTFS for windows 2000 or XP.

 

It did work before and it is powering up. And there is stuff on the hard drive.

 

yes, i have a lot of shit on this thing and i don't want to lose it....help me