External drive problem

[Marikina]

I have a Toshiba MK3265GSX that occasionally acts up. My PC still detects that I have an external drive connected under a generic designation (not the volume label I designated) but it doesn't actually show up and I can't access my files. I can accidentally "fix" it when I try to do a failed format attempt with Fat32Formatter on a few occasions: the program fails to format the drive and a bunch of error messages show up, but now my drive is suddenly "activated" again and I can access my files. The problem is that as of late it's more of a 50/50 shot and the program DOES format my drive, therefore erasing my data.

So I need to know the specific problem of my drive and how the "fix" works so I can recreate it in a less risky manner.

[labtech]

Check SMART values, then run a light scan. Can do this with MHDD.