My Passport to my MacBook Air - error message

Hi! My question is…

Upon connecting My Passport to my MacBook Air, I receive the following error message:
<OS X can’t repair the disk “MY Passport for Mac.” You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save
changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can.>

I can then navigate to My Passport in Finder and view my folders and files but can’t open them. I’ve attempted to transfer
some files from My Passport to my MacBook air and it just remains in the “Preparing to Transfer” stage. I have also
attempted to transfer the files on the corrupt My Passport to a functional and empty external hard drive and I receive the
same result: stuck on “Preparing to Transfer” for several hours.

Can you recommend any solutions so I can try to recover these very important files on My Passport?

Thank you in advance.
Heather

Did you try browsing the Internet for a data recovery application? If this is not successful then it would be best to contact a certified data recovery service company.