HELP! Drive not working!

Someone please help this desparate teacher!  I have many important things saved on my drive I have been using without any problems for 2 years.  Today, I went to open it and it is asking if I want to format.  This is not good!  Please let me know what I can do to fix this!

Thank you!

tracy.adkins,

When Windows is requesting to format/partition a disk drive it tends to be because the file system or partition table got lost or corrupted. On most cases, the disk itself is healthy and only the partition was lost when a disk is not safely ejected.

If this is the case, then I would recommend checking first with data recovery applications from your local computer store or the internet.