Can't see files in external HDD and they're not hidden!

[neotsunami]

I have a pretty bizarre problem with my 350GB AData Hard Drive, FAT format. I'm using Windows 7 (which apparently is known to have problems with USB HDDs). Okay, so here's the story:

Yeterday my HDD was working fine. I was moving files and folders around in it, copying things from my PC to it and so forth. I put my computer to sleep and then unplugged my HDD to take it to my office. When I plugged in at my office computer the HDD wasn't labeled and it only showed a single 2GB file called "USBC8T+à.". I tried scanning my drive with an antivirus and it said the drive wasn't accessible. So I brought it back home, thinking it was a problem with my office PC. But the damage was already done, my home computer also only showed the 2GB file.

I clicked on Properties->Tools->Check Now... only clicked on the "Automatically fix file system errors" checkbox and when it was finished it said that nothing was wrong. After that I ran it again but now I clicked both checkboxes, searching and fixing for bad sectors. While that was running my computer decided it was a good idea to have one of it's most annoying and sporadic errors happen...it shut down out of nothing, interrupting the scan. When I restarted it and checked my drive it didn't show the 2GB file anymore. Add to that that when I tried running the error-checking tool again it just closed and didn't say anything. Also, if I just click on Properties, it shows that I have 220GB of used space and about 70GB of free space, So my files are still there. I clicked on Show Hidden Files and Folders and it only shows 5 files: Recycle Bin, Recycle Bin.BIN, System Volume Information, FOUND.000, and FOUND.001 (none of which I have ANY idea what they are and what the files they contain mean).

I then plugged my drive to my other home computer which is running on XP. Tried the error-checking tool again, checking both checkboxes and again it didn't show any problems. After that I ran EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional 4.3.6, and after 7 hours it showed that it found about 1061GB of data to recover. More than three times what my HDD's capacity is! Plus, I honestly didn't understand a thing of what it had found because the folders and files were not called the same and they were simply TOO many. And since it'a a TB of data to recover, I obviously have no space ANYWHERE on any computer to recover that data to. So now I'm running PC Inspector File Recovery 4.0 to see if it has a more understandable solution. Thing is, it'll take 4000+ minutes to finish scanning my drive.

Is there any other explanation or solution for this!? Has this happened to anyone else? Or should I just resign and format my drive and just lose all my files?

 

[priye_kn]

Hi Ian
Great help!! Your solution worked for me. Thanks for sharing

 

[President_44]

Another way that I just solved this was to assign a letter drive.

Go to Disk Management and right click on your external hard drive and choose to Change Drive Letter and Paths or assign Path. My hard drive didn't have anything here so I assigned F: to it.

 

[Abhinay Wilfred]

hello Ian i have a folder name NEW FOLDER(2), now how do i unhide this, i tried giving NEw Fo~1 but it says parameter format incorrect now how do i unhide this folder

 

[tvilaca]

I have a pretty bizarre problem with my 350GB AData Hard Drive, FAT format. I'm using Windows 7 (which apparently is known to have problems with USB HDDs). Okay, so here's the story:

Yeterday my HDD was working fine. I was moving files and folders around in it, copying things from my PC to it and so forth. I put my computer to sleep and then unplugged my HDD to take it to my office. When I plugged in at my office computer the HDD wasn't labeled and it only showed a single 2GB file called "USBC8T+à.". I tried scanning my drive with an antivirus and it said the drive wasn't accessible. So I brought it back home, thinking it was a problem with my office PC. But the damage was already done, my home computer also only showed the 2GB file.

I clicked on Properties->Tools->Check Now... only clicked on the "Automatically fix file system errors" checkbox and when it was finished it said that nothing was wrong. After that I ran it again but now I clicked both checkboxes, searching and fixing for bad sectors. While that was running my computer decided it was a good idea to have one of it's most annoying and sporadic errors happen...it shut down out of nothing, interrupting the scan. When I restarted it and checked my drive it didn't show the 2GB file anymore. Add to that that when I tried running the error-checking tool again it just closed and didn't say anything. Also, if I just click on Properties, it shows that I have 220GB of used space and about 70GB of free space, So my files are still there. I clicked on Show Hidden Files and Folders and it only shows 5 files: Recycle Bin, Recycle Bin.BIN, System Volume Information, FOUND.000, and FOUND.001 (none of which I have ANY idea what they are and what the files they contain mean).

I then plugged my drive to my other home computer which is running on XP. Tried the error-checking tool again, checking both checkboxes and again it didn't show any problems. After that I ran EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional 4.3.6, and after 7 hours it showed that it found about 1061GB of data to recover. More than three times what my HDD's capacity is! Plus, I honestly didn't understand a thing of what it had found because the folders and files were not called the same and they were simply TOO many. And since it'a a TB of data to recover, I obviously have no space ANYWHERE on any computer to recover that data to. So now I'm running PC Inspector File Recovery 4.0 to see if it has a more understandable solution. Thing is, it'll take 4000+ minutes to finish scanning my drive.

Is there any other explanation or solution for this!? Has this happened to anyone else? Or should I just resign and format my drive and just lose all my files?

 

[Drishti_1]

sometimes viruse will convert the file folders as OS files

first control panel folder options
then sect view options

NOW IMPORTANT *****

look here and uncheck the point - Hide protected operating system files(recommended)

now all files folders will come up


now change the attribute of each one and remove hide option.
or else install software attribute changer and select all file folder and change hide attribute of all at once.

YOU SAVED MY LIFE
thanks

 

[monikaottova]

There is an alternative method through which you can make the device to view its contents. All you need to do is to:

Click on the start button.
Go to to My computer option.
Then organize to the option.
Go to folder and search options.
Click on View Tab.
Uncheck the Hide empty drives in computer folder.
Click Ok.

Hey man.. the same thing happened to me..so i surfed around the net and this solved my problem.... all credit goes to the guy who answered my question

1. click start>>run>>type in "cmd"
2. type the location of your flash drive.. e.g. "d:", "e:", "f:", etc..
3. type "dir /ah"
*you will now see the files/folders with hidden attributes
4. type "attrib [name of file/folder] -r -a -s -h"
*if you're going to unhide files, you should type the whole name plus the extension (format).. example "attrib party.jpg -r -a -s -h"
**if you have folders with 6 characters and above, type the first 6 characters then "~1".. example for folder named "birthday"
"attrib birthd~1 -r -a -s -h"
5. you should repeatedly type dir /ah after unhiding some files/folders so you'll know if they're now working or not..
6. now check you flash drive.. it should be there..

 

[monikaottova]

Hi, I was just transferring movie to the external hard drive and suddenly it stoped working. I have done some research and it looks like that the memory is full. If I could see the files then I will delete some and job done but the external hard drive doesn't come up. I am using Mac Book Pro by the way, any idea what I can do with the problem please.
Thanks in advance,
Monika

 

[Aakanksha_K]

This worked like magic, Thanks Ian

1. click start>>run>>type in "cmd"
2. type the location of your flash drive.. e.g. "d:", "e:", "f:", etc..
3. type "dir /ah"
*you will now see the files/folders with hidden attributes
4. type "attrib [name of file/folder] -r -a -s -h"
*if you're going to unhide files, you should type the whole name plus the extension (format).. example "attrib party.jpg -r -a -s -h"
**if you have folders with 6 characters and above, type the first 6 characters then "~1".. example for folder named "birthday"
"attrib birthd~1 -r -a -s -h"
5. you should repeatedly type dir /ah after unhiding some files/folders so you'll know if they're now working or not..
6. now check you flash drive.. it should be there..

[/quotemsg]

 

[Aakanksha_K]

Hey man.. the same thing happened to me..so i surfed around the net and this solved my problem.... all credit goes to the guy who answered my question

1. click start>>run>>type in "cmd"
2. type the location of your flash drive.. e.g. "d:", "e:", "f:", etc..
3. type "dir /ah"
*you will now see the files/folders with hidden attributes
4. type "attrib [name of file/folder] -r -a -s -h"
*if you're going to unhide files, you should type the whole name plus the extension (format).. example "attrib party.jpg -r -a -s -h"
**if you have folders with 6 characters and above, type the first 6 characters then "~1".. example for folder named "birthday"
"attrib birthd~1 -r -a -s -h"
5. you should repeatedly type dir /ah after unhiding some files/folders so you'll know if they're now working or not..
6. now check you flash drive.. it should be there..

 

[Aakanksha_K]

Thanks Ian Mathew.. It Works