The links to files on my external hard drive are broken...

[seanneale]

It's a hard drive I use for music/videos/games etc.  I tried to update my iPod one morning to find that I was unable to update it and when I checked in windows explorer the folder which contained my music had changed it's type to file, and hence windows was no longer able to access the mp3's within the folder. 

If I select all the files on the hard drive in explorer and right-click to find the size it says there is 929mb on the drive, however If i view how much space is taken up on the drive then it claims to contain 460Gb of data, obviously the two figures don't match!  This tells me that the data is still there but I am unable to access it.

So I ran a check disk on the drive on the drive and it returned the message attached.  The gist of this message is that there isn't enough free space on the hard drive to restore these files on the hard disk. 

So what I was wondering was would it be possible for me provide another hard drive which contains enough space for the dat to be restored? or am I able to access the data through msdos and move the data onto another hard drive that way?

Also would this problem with space mean that purchasing data recovery software would not be worthwhile?

I am running an HP G70-120EM which is running windows vista.  The hard drive is an elements 500 gb formatted to FAT32.

Guess I learnt to back up the hard way!

thanks for any help you can provide it is greatly appreciated!

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[darhblader]

try and see if you can access the files in command prompt first. if so it should be possible to copy them over that way

its an odd problem i'll give you that!!

sorry im not much help!

andy

[seanneale]

Ms-dos doesn't seem to acknowledge the folder as a directory as I understand it.  it doesn't say <DIR> next to the folder/file when I type "dir"

(I've never used ms-dos before had to find the language online!)

[darhblader]

have you tried using the command

cd (insert folder/file name here without brackets)


also it might work if you try and change the properties of the file back into a folder somehow in the properties dialog box under the right click menu

[seanneale]

it replies that "the directory name is invalid"

The only things I can change in the properties window is the tick boxes in front of "Read Only", "Hidden" & "Archive"

[darhblader]

i just ran a quick google session there which shed sme light on the situation (i think)

sorry im not much use i've enver seen or heard of this problem before

anyway apparently that folder could possible be a fragment of the files and the folder which where corupted and need to be recovered

unfortunately this is bad news as this file is bigger i take it then half of the hard drive so there is no room for recovery.

if you have another external drive big enough to do it though try and copy the file over and then try and recover it through the disc check for that drive?

this is a complete long shot mind



im really sorry i cant be more help!!!!


andy

[seanneale]

Is there a command in ms-dos which is equivalent to the mv command in Unix?

in windows i have tried cutting a smaller folder from the drive thats playing up to c and that doesn't seem to affect the size of the drive so i'm not to sure about that idea!

thanks for your help it's really appreciated!

[darhblader]

REN [drive:][path]old_filename new_filename  for renaming


      MOVE [Source] [Target]

Key
   source : The path and filename of the file(s) to move.

   target : The path and filename to move file(s) to.


Both Source and Target may be either a folder or a single file.


if i remember mv is move and rename but merged into one really?

if so the above commands are the ones for cmd

[seanneale]

It is yeah.

However moving it in dos has no different effect to cutting it in windows unfortunately, not sure what's left to try!

Do you know if any data recovery software would be able to recover the data to another drive if the lack of space on this one would be an issue?

[Dias de verano]

The filesystem on the external hard drive has become corrupted. It may or may not be possible to recover any data. It's probably gone to data heaven.

You could try an app called Recuva

http://www.recuva.com/

[darhblader]

im sorry man. i have absolutely no idea!!

sorry dude!!


andy

[seanneale]

giving it a go now, it says that there is a lot of unrecoverable files though, you might be right!

thanks darhblader for all your help you had more ideas than I have!

[darhblader]

no problem any time. sorry i couldnt help you