Hard Drive problems with viewing my files

I've been having some trouble with one of my hard drives for some time now. Right now it's doing something very interesting. A couple days ago when I clicked on my MP3s folder it opened and about half of the mp3s were missing. Now, when I click on it, it says "D drive not formatted, would you like to format it not" like there is nothing in the folder. Now, when I open command up, I can go in to my mp3 folder and see all the files, and look around and everything. And if I open winamp, it goes to the last folder I was in and I can even play all mp3s that are in the folder. I hope you can help me. Thanks.

 

this simple answer is: back up and reformat ... NOW!

Sooner or later you may not have access to any files no matter what you do because left unchecked the symptoms will only persist as it sounds like your partition table is becoming corrupt. Also I've heard of a bug where the windows explorer will, sort of, "forget" files. I'm not too familiar with this bug, but that may also be the reason. At any rate, back up and reformat, NOW!

 

Yes... I've definitely considered that option. That's the reason I came here... I wanted to see if there was possibly anything else I could do. Anyone? Thankyou though

 

What firewall,anti virus and anti spyware software do you have and when was the last time you updated windows?

 

I use Zone Alarm Pro, Norton Internet Security 05, Ad Aware Pro and Spybot. I have Windows XP Pro SP2.

 

doesnt this have norton firewall,running two firewalls is not recommended

 

Haha, yeah. I have it disabled.

 

Does anyone have any clue?

 

Your file structure my have become corrupt,try defragging the drive also install speedfan,go to the smart tab select your harddrive to see the fitness and performance of the drive

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=337

 

So, I'm dying here to get this thing figured out. Is there anyway i can transfer my files by using the command prompt at all? Also, if anyone has any other ideas, please feel free to elaborate.

 

Is the affected computer on a network with other computers?

If so, you can download the Knoppix ISO from www.knoppix.net and burn the CD. Knoppix is a bootable CD with a graphic interface that will, in most cases establish the network connection for you and allow you to copy the files from an NTFS drive to another machine.

 

Awesome, I can definitely do/try that. A little more information for anyone else, when I'm in command, I can go to my mp3 folder; however when i type dir it states "Volume in drive D has no label. Volume Serial number bla bla." But then, if I type cd aerosmith, to go to a folder I know should be there, it goes to aerosmith, and if I type dir, all the songs/folders in the Aerosmith folder come up. It will take a day or so to do the knoppix thing, so if anyone has any other ideas, they are all greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Oh, any chance, that I could load knoppix on my computer, and transfer the files to another hard drive. I have four, and only one is messing up. Just wondering, thanks.

 

The problem with using Knoppix to move them to another drive in the same machine is that Linux in general does not have a reliable ability to write to a NTFS drive which is most likely what you have with XP. Thats why copying accross a network is recommended. It uses TCP/IP which is a standard network protocol which allows all type of operating systems to communicate.

If you have space on your other drives, have you tried moving the files in windows?

 

You can try running explorerxp it is an alternative explorer. http://www.majorgeeks.com/ExplorerXP_d4201.html

 

Alright..., so I tried booting knoppix on my computer and it came up, but couldnt read the files on the hard drive, so im assuming it wouldnt read them on another computer either, tell me if im wrong though. I also tried explorerxp, but no luck there either.

So I just got O&O Defrag and I'm working with that now, its nice, but no luck yet, but im working with it. I know my mp3 folder is definitely fragmented, so, Im assuming the only thing I can really do now is hope the a defrag program will fix it. Is that really my only choice, or is there something else, such as a data recovery program or anything?

 

So I'm working with some data recovery programs. I started with GetDataBack, and I ran the program, but it kept having problems reading sectors on the disk, which I figured would happen. So the website suggested I make an image of the drive and use that. So I got Drive Image and when I went to create the image, it also couldn't create an image because it couldnt correctly read the drive. Any ideas, or suggestions on recovery programs, especially ones that work with messed up hard drives like mine. Thanks.

 

I've used BootIt Next Generation which includes a partition and imaging tool. This was over a year ago so things may have changed but it was a 30 day free trial. After downloading you create a bootable floppy (or CD). You don't have to install to your HD, just boot from the floppy. I notice on their website they also have an 'Image for DOS' program which I haven't tried.

I don't know if this will cope with a failing hard drive but might be worth a try.