HDD partition issue

Hi guys,

I just wanted get opinions on how to solve this issue or if anyone has experienced it or not...

what happened (scenario):
- win xp pro
- 2 hdd, 1st for os and 2nd for data
- 2nd hdd has 3 partition (D, E and F)
- so yesterday, i tried accessing the F drive and it gave me "I/O error" message, i then close windows explorer and preceded to try opening F drive again, but now the entire 2nd hdd is gone (D, E, and F drive cannot be seen...)

- then i turn off the comp, checked all the cables to the drives, booted the comp back up, and windows detected the 2nd hdd again (with D, E, F)...

- but now the issue is that the D partition is totally screwed, (it is labelled as local disk instead of what i named it.)

- when i try to access it, it saying that it's a RAW format and it prompted me if i wanted to format it or not... (my other partitions, E and F are working fine though...)

so my question is:
1) does anyone know what happened? (so i can avoid it in the future?)

2) can i recover my data from the D drive that is in RAW format atm?

3) could it possibly be a sign of a drive that's failing?

side note: i did install a DVD rom 3 - 4 days ago...the dvd rom is still working fine now..

Thanks, appreciate any info =)

 

Perhaps try replacing the cable. However, I think this may be a sign of failing hardware.