A big hello to all at the Think Digit forum..

i am a new member here & have joined this forum with a main purpose of Learning from all you tech experts

i will admit that i am a
Coming back to the main topic, a friend of mine gave me his 320GB Samsung USB hard disk & while i was running a virus scan (using Avast Home 4.8) i got a this "Windows Delayed Write Failed" pop-up in the taskbar.
as i am typing this post,Error-Checking is running (i have checked both the options, fixing file system errors & attempting recovery of bad sectors), but it has been stuck on 'Phase 4' for a very, very long time now..
i am tensed because, God forbid, if the data is lost then i may jeopardise our friendship, which i don't want to (have never done so)
My friend isn't the tech type, so even if i try & explain that it isn't my fault, he will definitely not be convinced & i don't have money to buy him a new hard disk.
Please help me.. is it my fault??