USB External HDD acting up

ok, this is hard to explain, but here it goes:I just updated my firefox browser and this is when the trouble started, i tried to access my HDD and it keeps telling me this
"unable to access file, either corrupt or unreadable" and well since my HDD is old, i tried to unplug it and let it sit for awhile
but when i plug it in now, it freezes my PC up and dangit i dont feel like trying to format it and lose my infohere is the info for my HDD:Maxtor OneTouch 4 500 gb External HDDok, i found out, it might be a virus issue, so what type of virus could do something like this??ok, i was able to fix this issue, mods you can close this, thank you