A friend of mine just got this error recently when he plugged in his external HD. He asked for some help so I’m going over there today to see if I can do something about it since he keeps everything on his external HD so he’s quite desperate to get it fixed as quickly as possible. In the past I’ve fixed the error by doing a quick format, then recovering the files using a recovery program (I used NTFS recover). However he tells me none of his USB devices work, including his memory stick and his phone when plugged in via USB, which leads me to think its a problem with his laptop. Unfortunately he hasn’t got another PC to test any of the devices on. Also, even if it is a problem with the devices as supposed to his laptop then I won’t be able to fix it the way I have in the past, since he doesn’t have enough space on his laptop to temporarily hold all the recovered files, and neither of us have an external HD we can use (although I can get one from a friend in a few days if there is no other way to fix until then).
Anyway if it is a problem with his laptop then the only thing that comes to mind is reinstalling his USB drivers, but other than that I’m not really what else I can do? If what I did in the past is still the only way to fix it, is there any way of knowing what file system his devices used so I don’t reformat the drives with the wrong file system? Any ideas?
Thanks a lot 
Edit: also he says all his other drives (i.e. his CD/DVD drives) work fine.
