SOS: Drive space shows 156GB used but drive contents empty

I'm in a panic mode.
My files are supposed to be inside a subfolder within the drive. Now all the subfolders are visible but there is no contents inside.
That is My Computer - DRIVE F - Subfolder A (visible) - Subfolder A1 (visible) - contents in Subfolder A1 (EMPTY).

Now when I check DRIVE F it tells me 156GB of 210GB used, which corresonds to the file sizes. So it seems to recognize files inside the drive but when I go inside it's completely empty!

Any help?...

Hi,

Please open a CMD window, then navaagte to the drive and folder that you think has the files. Now type dir *.* and hit enter.

Please post the results here.

Regards,
Golden

I opened the Comand Prompt window but I just want to make sure I'm typing the right command as it's telling me what I typed is invalid.

This is what I typed:
F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1 dir*.*

use a space between dir and *.*

It says 'F:\Avid' is not recognized as an internal or external command , operable program or batch file.

Ah....no, you need to do this:

1. F: <enter>
2. cd\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1 <enter>
3. dir *.* <enter>

ok one sec

Here are the results:

C:\Users\Owner>F:

F:\>cd\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1

F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1>dir *.*
Volume in drive F is AVID1
Volume Serial Number is DA6A-4782

Directory of F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1

02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> .
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> ..
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> Creating
02/09/2011 09:48 AM 388 msmFMID.pmr
02/09/2011 09:48 AM 59,984 msmMMOB.mdb
02/09/2011 09:48 AM 279,315,041 TdotSkyline1HD.mov.4D52A92A.mxf
3 File(s) 279,375,413 bytes
3 Dir(s) 57,102,290,944 bytes free

F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1>
-------------------------

a) Mind you the 3 files it's showing now are what are just added when I was doing a test.
b) It should have upwards of at 60 files or more
c) In my computer it's still showing 156GB of 210 used.
So for some reason it's still recognizing the old files but not showing it

OK. Go back to the root of F: like this:-

Type:

1. cd\ <enter>

Now type :

1. dir /s <enter>

Ok here are the results:

C:\Users\Owner>F:

F:\>cd\

F:\>dir /s
Volume in drive F is AVID1
Volume Serial Number is DA6A-4782

Directory of F:\

01/03/2011 09:01 AM 0 7004_57212828_MVM_2.tmp
01/03/2011 09:01 AM 0 7004_57212828_MVM_6.tmp
12/10/2010 03:24 AM <DIR> Avid MediaFiles
2 File(s) 0 bytes

Directory of F:\Avid MediaFiles

12/10/2010 03:24 AM <DIR> .
12/10/2010 03:24 AM <DIR> ..
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> MXF
0 File(s) 0 bytes

Directory of F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF

02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> .
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> ..
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> 1
0 File(s) 0 bytes

Directory of F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1

02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> .
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> ..
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> Creating
02/09/2011 09:48 AM 388 msmFMID.pmr
02/09/2011 10:07 AM 59,984 msmMMOB.mdb
02/09/2011 09:48 AM 279,315,041 TdotSkyline1HD.mov.4D52A92A.mxf
3 File(s) 279,375,413 bytes

Directory of F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1\Creating

02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> .
02/09/2011 09:48 AM <DIR> ..
0 File(s) 0 bytes

Total Files Listed:
5 File(s) 279,375,413 bytes
12 Dir(s) 57,102,290,944 bytes free

F:\>

OK, thats listed every file on F: and every directory (only 5 of them, 3 of which you added during your testing, right?).

Lets check for hidden files from F:

Type:

dir /AH/s <enter>

Oh yeah it's right. The 5 files accounts for the two subfolders which I included in the later CMD prompts.
The 3 files were from the CMD prompts on just the folder that's supposed to contain the media files.

I found a solution to the problem. It's a work around but it worked.
Because the files are media files captured through an editing software (AVID Media Composer). I was able to go into AVID and tell it to re-import the original files which I had stored in another drive. And now I'm back online!!
BTW I reformated the F dirve before doing this (in the hope that it will wipe out whatever errors it had).

The alarming thing is that what if the affected drive was my original files or other drives containing personal documents, then I'm toast. It only worked because AVID could see the original files in the other drives and link back to it.

Your ideas prompted me to research the problem more and see if there's any work around.
I still don't know why this happened and haven't even heard of such a thing before but at least I'm back online.

THANKS!!

Glad its working OK. Yes, the format would have fixed any underlying errors, so that was the right thing to do.

Cool. Thanks again.

No worries.