Hard Drive....Help!! LOST 50 GIGS ????

[coopaloop]

I have a 80 gig ext hard drive with pictures mp3's programs, Family pics..
I have about 65 gigs used up on it and everything was working fine until a few days ago.

It's showing that there are 65 gigs of space are being used up on the drives properties but I can only see and access about 15 gigs of....what happeneed to the other 50 gigs...

It's is currently using Fat 32 file system....should I try to change it over to NTFS.. If at all possible
Or is there another way to aceess these files...

Any help or advice would be apprieciated...thanks

[willy]

Are you sure you have 65GB of pics and mp3s ? Or you are actually having 15GB but the OS reports 65GB for some reason ....

[coopaloop]

No it's using about 65 gigs.. I have about 2000 cd's stored on there on mp3's..
and thousands of family and vacation pics as well..

I spent countless days getting them on there..

[jedi_knight]

I have had great sucess with a program called getdataback from
www.runtime.org
This program will scan your hard drive for files.
It can work around corrupted FAT blocks.
There is a version for FAT32 and a version for NTFS.

Do not change your filesystem type until you get your data back!!!!
With getdataback you can create a image of your hard drive, which you can then try and repair.
If you try to repair your HD directly you only have 1 chance.
Hope this helps.

[pd0x]

hmmm....two things have possible gone wrong, (a) that there are hidden files on your hard drive that you arent looking at / taking into account (system-restore is one) (b) the other is that there is something wrong with your MFT master file table...my suggestion is copy all the files to another HD or computer, then wipe the drive and start over again...I remember dealing with a problem like this a long time ago, I cant remember my exact solution / diagnosis..

[pd0x]

hmmm....two things have possible gone wrong, (a) that there are hidden files on your hard drive that you arent looking at / taking into account (system-restore is one) (b) the other is that there is something wrong with your MFT master file table...my suggestion is copy all the files to another HD or computer, then wipe the drive and start over again...I remember dealing with a problem like this a long time ago, I cant remember my exact solution / diagnosis..

[Ziggy007]

If you are using Windows XP use NTFS

[enforcerviper]

If you are using Windows XP use NTFS

Why would you do this? Whenever a hard drive has data problems you never do anything to write to the drive. You're first step is recovery software that does not modify the drive contents in any way. Converting to NTFS would be a stupid idea.

[coopaloop]

thanks for the help...I will try and recover my lost files somehow....I wan't to be very carefull not to lose a lifetime of photos.....

[mp328]

might be a bad block/cluster on the drive.
try rightclicking on "My Computer" go to "Manage" , "Evenet Viewer" , "System" and check what the EVENT ID is if u have any big red X in there
this is what mine says EVENT ID 7 = "The device, \Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad block."

my stupid maxtor (200GB) did this now for the 2nd time within 6 months. and it's the same symptoms;. i had in one folder only music videos like 200 of them and all of a sudden they were only like 10 left in the folder.

i use easy recovery pro software, awesome to get stuff back. but u have to look for it. OR buy it

now i gotta RMA the stupid drive once again. like i said 2nd drive within 6 months.

[coopaloop]

I just tried that and have several big red x's in there,lot's of errors...looks like a whole lotta trouble for me

[tubs]

Try this software. It's 100+ though, but given the importance of the data, it could be a good option.

Main page:

http://www.grc.com/default.htm

Software page:

SpinRite

EDIT:

Oh crap, never mind. This thing doesn't support USB drives yet. I'm assuming your external drive connects through the USB port.

[coopaloop]

Yes it is USB.2....
I watched the video for Spin Rite...Very interesting..
Has anyone here used it before

[ragin_pyro]

Yes it is USB.2....
I watched the video for Spin Rite...Very interesting..
Has anyone here used it before

Yea, I know a guy that used it on a 200gb Seagate, said it worked, but it took like 20 hours.. then he used Getdataback to put it on his 80gb external, took a few days lol. I used both getdataback and Ontrack Easyrecovery pro (as said look for it, or buy it) It worked great for me, very fast, an recovered everything.. If its that important..try data recovery..but its prolly 2 pricey, jus try some recovery programs..