External HDD suddenly started to look unformatted in under Windows

>>61502089
Looks like your HDD is dead.

Check the SMART. Crystaldiskinfo is a good start.

>>61502102
I did just now, shows blue for all except "current pending sector count" which is yellow

Am I fucked in term of the data on the drive?

>>61502152
>Am I fucked in term of the data on the drive?
Yup. Throw it in the bin and restore your backups.

>>61502204
This drive is the backups.
Fuck.
Thanks for helping me realize.

>>61502152
>>61502223
You can still try to save your files.
Plug in a GNU/Linux live USB and boot from it.
Then use ddrescue or photorec.

>>61502223
>This drive is the backups.
no it's not
a backup is an additional copy of something
placing something in one place is not a backup, it is the only copy
if this drive contains the only copy of something, that thing is not backed up

>>61502089
Use Photorec not Testdisk. Testdisk just tries to restore the old partition table, Photorec attempts to detect data (if readable) off the disks.

>>61502089
if incorrect size it's usually firmware or interface bug rather than actually bad surface

I'd take it out of the USB enclosure and connect it internally via SATA to see if it's readable. got a desktop?