Did a defrag on my external HDD and now I lost my files

[JamesY]

I've been running a 500gb WD external HD and I have it 90%+ full of files. I foolishly did a defrag through Windows 7 and now I can't locate the files. These drive still shows its 90% full but I can't access any of the files. Any suggestions on what I can do or who to take it to? I have very important files in there that I can't lose.

[NYT]

by "access" do you mean that you cant open the files or you cant view the files in windows explorer?

[NYT]

if you cannot view the files in explorer, its prob just your os. i would disconnect the drive and connect it to another machine. if you dont have another machine, i would disconnect the drive, reboot the system and allow device manager to see that it is no longer connected, reboot again and it should find the drive and the files. 500GB is nothing and should never need a defrag, win 7 does sector cleanup automatically.

in the future, go through these steps:

http://windows.about.com/od/maintainandfix/ss/defragment.htm

[REDdawn6]

I have defraged ext hdd many times. Could be a bad drive. Do a disc chek on it and it bad. save files , return for exchange and repcopy to new hdd. I have a large music library. I have a raid array on my pc to save in case of hdd failure.
I also have two external drives as back up as well. I hope you keep the info on your pc and ext hdd.

[JamesY]

by "access" do you mean that you cant open the files or you cant view the files in windows explorer?

I can't even view the files.

if you cannot view the files in explorer, its prob just your os. i would disconnect the drive and connect it to another machine. if you dont have another machine, i would disconnect the drive, reboot the system and allow device manager to see that it is no longer connected, reboot again and it should find the drive and the files. 500GB is nothing and should never need a defrag, win 7 does sector cleanup automatically.

in the future, go through these steps:

http://windows.about.com/od/maintain...defragment.htm

I tried hooking it up to another computer running Windows 7 and same thing. Shows its full but can't view any files. I'll take a look at the link when I get home.

I have defraged ext hdd many times. Could be a bad drive. Do a disc chek on it and it bad. save files , return for exchange and repcopy to new hdd. I have a large music library. I have a raid array on my pc to save in case of hdd failure.
I also have two external drives as back up as well. I hope you keep the info on your pc and ext hdd.

I tried the chkdsk DOS command on it and I still can't restore the files.

[NYT]

ok, it sounds like the drive is corrupted. what is the exact model?

[[Variable]]

Recuva:

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Unstoppable Copier:

http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29

Recuva can dig up a lost partition or the data if the structure was lost. Unstoppable Copier will copy all data bit for bit all the way up to the corrupt sector without hanging or failing like Windows would.

[jbolton]

Sounds like corrupt files and possibly a drive going bad. Better back that baby up.

[cid`]

event viewer show any block access errors?

if so, disk could be failing, if not, then sounds like filesystem is a bit jacked up

runtime.org > getdataback (i've used this tons of times, works well, but a disk scan can take 5-20 hours). IF you do go this route and scan your drive, make sure to save the recovery so you don thave to rescan again if something happens