LHinton

I just downloaded Recuva & tried to run my first scan. However, I get the following error message: Data error (cyclic redundency check). What does this mean? How can I fix it? I have no idea what happened to this Ext HD over the past week, but my system is no longer able to access any info on the drive even though the drive shows up in My Computer. Windows Vista suggested I format the disk to access it but then it gives me an error message saying it can't format the drive. Please help!