Lost data on an External Hard Drive

[JustMeYeah]

So I have a number of folders on my external hard drive, one of which is/was named as 'Notes' and just yesterday I noticed that inside that folder that all of my files/folders within it had gone and had been replaced by 1 single file named '"USBC╪∞╤å". I browsed around for a while and just couldn't find a solution to this issue (I've tried Recuva but to no avail) so I shut down the system hoping that I could re-cover whatever had been lost. I've booted up the system now, only to find that my "Notes" folder has been replaced with a file, which simply shows it as being a 'file'. (screenshot of it included: https://i.imgur.com/4UUrHp8.jpg )

All my other files/folders are all there still, it's just the "Notes" folder that I have an issue with. Is there any way to recover the files that seem to have been lost? I had only re-written my C.V (which took 3 hours to type up!) which I no longer, maybe ironically, have a backup of.

 

[DR_Luke]

My guess is that your hard drive is formatted FAT (though I suppose the same could happen with NTFS or HFS) and that it has bad sectors and/or weak heads. If those file are of value, you are best to seek the assistance of a professional data recovery lab.

If you want to try it on your own, you can try to secure a full sector-by-sector copy of your drive with a linux program ddrescue (Guide to use it here - https://www.recoveryforce.com/ddrescue or https://www.data-medics.com/forum/how-to-clone-a-hard-drive-with-bad-sectors-using-ddrescue-t133.html) If you find that there are significant amounts of bad sectors, you will have a pretty good idea that the drive is toast. If you are able to get a good mirror, you can then scan the drive with a good data recovery program.