Time Machine's WD External Repair?

[soccersquirt82]

My Western Digital external with my Time Machine Backups needs to be repaired when I did Verify Disk in Disk Utility. If I do this, all my backups will be lost, correct? So I need to put the backups on a different HD (I'm thinking I do this by plugging in both at the same time and just dragging and dropping the Time Machine Backups)? And if I do this, how do I put it back on the original as Time Machine format so I can add new TM Backups and go into Time Machine and see all my previous backups? And to add to the confusion, this external is so messed up that when I plug it in, it says that the hard drive can't be read by the computer. In other words, I can't see the files on it, so I can't imagine how I could move the invisible files onto another drive.

I would love not to lose my backups and not to lose my external. Are either possible? Does this external seem fried with no hope of coming back to life?

 

[BlueRevolution]

My Western Digital external with my Time Machine Backups needs to be repaired when I did Verify Disk in Disk Utility. If I do this, all my backups will be lost, correct?

No. Repairing with Disk Utility will not affect any data on the drive. You're thinking of formatting.

 

[soccersquirt82]

I tried repairing the disk, but it says, "Disk Utitlity can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, an restore your back-up files."

How do I back up the files onto another external if I can't even see the files nor the icon on the desktop?

Once I back up the files, reformat the disk, and put the old files back on, will the files be formatted for Time Machine?

 

[BlueRevolution]

How do I back up the files onto another external if I can't even see the files nor the icon on the desktop?

If the partition won't mount, you'll have to use something like Drive Genius to repair. If even that fails, you might be able to recover the data with Data Rescue. Both programs cost about $100, which probably isn't worth the price for a backup drive. Just erase it and make a new backup.