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?

Try to reformat the external drive through Disk Management. This will, of course, nuke all information that may be on the drive.

Start -> Run -> mcc -> File -> Add/Remove Snap-In -> Add -> Disk Management -> Add -> Finish -> Close -> OK

Either click Disk Management in the left pane, or double-click it in the right pane.

Follow this for each partition listed beside the external drive, in the bottom pane.

Right-click the partition -> Format -> Check Perform a quick format -> OK.