Windows 10: Need help with fixing error code that keeps showing up on external hard drive

The error code 'error 0x8000ffff catastrophic failure' keeps showing up for my external hard drive and I've tried a few different methods like changing permission to have full control or clearing the hard drive attribute of read only but nothing seems to be working. Are there any other methods I could use aside from formatting my hard drive as that would require backing up HD which I cannot as of current. Any other help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

:)

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

External Hard Drive

Hi,

Just to verify, did you mean, your back up files used to be on your external hard drive, but now it's no longer there? If this is true, kindly provide more answers to the questions below, so we can further assess the issue:

• When did the files start to disappear?
• What are the troubleshooting steps you have done so far?
• Did you make nay changes on the settings of your PC or hard drive prior to this issue?
• Are you getting any error messages when trying to plug in your external drive?
• Does your external drive shows that the space is consumed?

Please advise. We'll keep an eye out to your response.