Question : Problem: Hard Drive Recovery

I have a 300gb ATA Maxtor Diamond Max HD that I use in a external casing.. I recently ran into a serious problem that I could use some advice on.

Is there any good free software that might beable to restore, or recover all my files. The drive all of sudden has been corrupted. I was told it's cause I turned off the external drive without going through the safety steps. I did it one time and BAM, look what happens. ARGGHHHH

If there isn't a good software, is there any really cheap services out there that are reputable. I have pretty important documents on my drive that I NEED to recover.

Answer : Problem: Hard Drive Recovery

callrs => thanks for the plug :-)

"... free software ..." or "... really cheap services ..." are a bit inconsistent with the data recovery industry.   Gillware is about the most reasonably priced professional data recovery company I know, and they're $378.99 (& up => but for what you've described it would probably cost that).   GetDataBack is the premier do-it-yourself tool; and although the free demo will show you WHAT it can recover; you do have to buy a license ($69 - $79 depending on the file system used) to actually recover them.

One "free" thing you can try:   Remove the drive from the external casing;  hook it to an internal IDE (or SATA, as appropriate) channel in your system; and then see if the drive is "seen" okay.   It's best to do this anyway before running GetDataBack; as a direct connection to the drive is better than the translated connection in an external casing [which has its own IDE/SATA controller and translates the commands to/from the USB protocol].