Windows 7 - Can't access files on my external HD

Ok, so I have a Storagebird 500gb external disk full of videos, pictures and stuff. Recently it started to load slowly and when I try to play files from it, it says 'Error -43: a file could not be found ('xxxx.mov'). The HD shows up in disk management and my computer, but I can only access a handful of files. Is there a way to recover the rest of them? Thanks in advance.

sounds suspiciously like an HD failing. Might want to run a chkdsk to see and if so perhaps the mfrs disk checking app.

A- CHKDSK /R /F:

Run CHKDSK /R /F from an elevated (Run as administrator) Command Prompt.

Do this for each hard drive on your system.

When it tells you it can't do it right now - and asks you if you'd like to do it at the next reboot - answer Y (for Yes) and press Enter.

Then reboot and let the test run.

It may take a while for it to run, but keep an occasional eye on it to see if it generates any errors.

See "CHKDSK LogFile" below in order to check the results of the test.


B- Elevated Command Prompt:

Go to Start and type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes)

At the top of the Search Box, right click on Cmd.exe and select "Run as administrator"


C-CHKDSK LogFile:

Go to Start and type in "eventvwr.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter

Expand the Windows logs heading, then select the Application log file entry.

Double click on the Source column header.

Scroll down the list until you find the Chkdsk entry (wininit for Windows 7) (winlogon for XP).

Copy/paste the results into your next post.

It could be a fault in the drives recycle bin. With your drive connected, copy and paste rd /s /q x:\$Recycle.bin into a command prompt as stated by zigzag3143 above. Change the x to the letter used by your drive.

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
335616 file records processed. File verification completed.
1143 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 76 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
385348 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
335616 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 336 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 336 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 336 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
24867 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
36897392 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
335600 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
23029749 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

195357408 KB total disk space.
102684764 KB in 290864 files.
104108 KB in 24868 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
449536 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
92119000 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
48839352 total allocation units on disk.
23029750 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 1f 05 00 5e d1 04 00 7e 71 06 00 00 00 00 00 ....^...~q......
5f 03 00 00 4c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 _...L...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Problems found and fixed. Still crashing?

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

I tried this as well, now it shows up as local disk in my computer can't open it.

Was the driver formatted in NTFS?

Was it from an earlier OS?

What error messages are you getting?

It is NTFS format, from the same OS. Now I don't get any messages:

So thats it, my files are gone?

If you did as I stated exactly, your drive name would not change.