Folder Only Shows Files That Start With A-F (Won't Display Other Files)

[neljan]

Well, if I open up one of the "invisible" folders, I can indeed drag the files out of the folders (let's say, on to my Desktop) and they'll be there...weird.  MY PROBLEM is that a lot of the files (over a 1000 of them) aren't in folder...so essentially, they're stuck...

Try changing the folder view to list (not details)

Try cutting the files (not those in the folders) to a different location, then seeing if the 'hidden' files show in their place...

[needhelpreallybad08]

When did you last do a disk check?

Well I hadn't for a while -- so I (tried) to do one on your suggestion.

It wasn't looking good from the get go: "file record segment ______ is unreadable" kept popping up all down the screen.

Then the scan disk restarted the computer and kicked it to a black screen.  This black screen had readouts of the devices in my computer, and at the bottom said: "Pri Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status: BAD, Backup and Replace".

When it says "BAD", does that mean the hard drive is physically damaged (like I actually have to go out and purchase a new hard drive and install it) OR that I simply have to do a full system restore and everything should be fine???

(I'm going to backup what I can and just count everything else as collateral damage of using the Windows Operating System.)

[Dias de verano]

When it says "BAD", does that mean the hard drive is physically damaged

Yes that is what it means.

(like I actually have to go out and purchase a new hard drive

Yes you do

and install it)

Yup

OR that I simply have to do a full system restore and everything should be fine???

The hard drive is failing. It has been failing for some time, and soon it will be unusable. You have a window of time during which you can try to backup whatever data you can, it may be a month or two, it could be a day,  but a "S.M.A.R.T. Status: BAD" message means that the drive is really junk.

(I'm going to backup what I can

Good plan

and just count everything else as collateral damage of using the Windows Operating System.)

If you do that you will be in denial. What happened to your hard drive has nothing at all to do with Windows. Hard drive failure can happen through overheating, physical knocks and shocks, a bad unit, a number of things. This is a PHYSICAL failure, and you had a warning when files started vanishing, (or, more precisely, their names) but you ignored it, possibly because you did not know what this meant. The longer you operate this drive, the more data you will lose, so do the backup soon, and try to think if there are any things you did which could have damaged the drive. It could just be old or you could have been unlucky, but all drives will fail sooner or later.

[neljan]

but all drives will fail sooner or later.

A scarey realisation!

[needhelpreallybad08]

Dias de verano THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.  It is truly appreciated.  However, I do have a few more questions:

When it says "BAD", does that mean the hard drive is physically damaged

Yes that is what it means.

(like I actually have to go out and purchase a new hard drive

Yes you do

and install it)

Yup

OR that I simply have to do a full system restore and everything should be fine???

The hard drive is failing. It has been failing for some time, and soon it will be unusable. You have a window of time during which you can try to backup whatever data you can, it may be a month or two, it could be a day,  but a "S.M.A.R.T. Status: BAD" message means that the drive is really junk.

Okay, so I need to buy a new hard drive and install it. (Which means I have to go and pay someone who knows what they're doing to install it).  That's fine, but here are some issues:

1) My computer did not come with a back-up DVD-ROM.  Instead, my hard drive has a back-up partition, Drive D, with all the recovery information.  HOWEVER, if my whole hard drive is going out, I will thus lose this back-up partition and in effect, lose my copy of Windows XP.  (BTW, I in no way want to "upgrade" to Vista...no way).

So how do I get the back-up info on the partition, Drive D,  onto my (future) new hard drive?

2) My current failing hard drive is only 250G.  When I make the future purchase of a new hard drive, I would preferably like to upgrade to something between 750G - 1.5T. 

If, somehow, I get the recovery info from my back-up partition, would it accept a bigger, newer hard drive?

Can Windows XP even handle 750G - 1.5T hard drives?

Dias de verano or whoever else, thanks in advance once again!!!

[patio]

Contact the manuf. to find out the procedure for creating a Bootable CD/DVD from the Recovery partition...it's different for each manuf.
Then burn it to CD/DVD following their instructions.
I'd make at least 2 copies...

[needhelpreallybad08]

Contact the manuf. to find out the procedure for creating a Bootable CD/DVD from the Recovery partition...it's different for each manuf.
Then burn it to CD/DVD following their instructions.
I'd make at least 2 copies...

Sounds good, I'll try to contact HP.

It seems there are "Serial ATA", "Parallel ATA", "SCSI" internal hard drives.  My computer is a HP Media Center PC m1180n.  From a quick Google search, it seems my hard drive is a "Serial ATA", but is there any way to determine this for sure?

More importantly, once I have someone install my new hard drive, do I simply pop in my recovery CD/DVD?  For example:

1) I get computer home, plug it in, turn it on...

2) Open DVD-drive, pop in recovery CD/DVD...

3) Recovery CD/DVD just does it's thing?

My fear is that once I have someone install the new hard drive, nothing will happen when I turn the computer on...I've never done this kinda thing before.