Sytem error in the hard drive !

Hello,
I urgently need some guidance ! I have a passport external hard disk and while I was using it, I may have accidentally switched my computer to the hibernation mode. After I had done this when I used it next, which was in a couple of hours the particular file that I was using before was inaccessible and it kept saying " format disk to use". I scanned the disk for errors only to lose the entire folder. After scanning it said that the folder with the system error was relocated to some folder called 'found'. I have been unable to find it ever since. I have tried to restore the files and the folder back to their previous versions but they either come up with no version for some files and for some of the other files after they provide the previous versions, they can't relocate the file. It's a really important work related word doc. I need to access it urgently

I'd appreciate any help at all !
Bonny