External HDD

My computer won't recognise my external hard disc anymore.

The USB acknowledgment sound comes on when I activate it, but then Explorer crashes whenever I try and access it.

Is it borked forever, or can I format it somehow and save my precious gigabytes? Is it just the encoder that's broken?

Divide the problem into manageable pieces.  Take the ext hdd to another computer and plug it in to see if it's visible from the OS.  If so, then you've confirmed that the problem is with your OS.  If not, then the problem's with the ext hdd.  Is it under warranty?