Folder disappeared!

Hi location of the folder of interest is on an external HDD, Samsung

F:/CHEM/Computer Assessments

Judging by the title of the folder, you can tell I'm not happy about losing it.

File initially appeared in Windows 7 file browser then error message pops up almost instantaneously: "File or folder does not exist".

Folder disappears inexplicably.

Potentially relevant facts:

• I have been disconnecting and reconnecting the ext. HDD between a number of computers, always ensuring to eject device properly.
• I dual boot with a linux system, OpenSUSE 11.2

Help I need those files back! What has cursed Windows 7 done to my work!

The thing is I didn't delete it. It just inexplicably disappeared right before my eyes! Windows suddenly tells me the folder does not exist and I'm damn sure it does. Do you know what has happened?

Lordbob75 said:

Have you checked for the folder from within Linux?
How is the ext drive formatted?

~Lordbob

Yes, no luck. It is NTSF format.

This wouldn't have anything to do with CHKDSK running would it? I mean one of my computers was checking for "disk consistency", bearing in mind that I'm dual booting here. I can't remember if my ext HDD was plugged in but I figured it CHKDSK would only examine the computer's harddrive not any peripheral HDDs...

richc46 said:

Try digger, it will find if deleted or just hidden.

the deep scan yields 3 irrelevant file. the deeper scan yields hundreds of files, unrecognisable by the numerical string names they have been assigned.

have a feeling it didn't even recover relevant files, but it is not practical to go through one by one opening them. i have huge ext HDD.

other suggestions?

This thread is one of the top searches for "Folder Disappeared" so I am posting here. I am sorry to disturb previous thread posters. I am posting here to offer one solution in bold below.

Like the OP I used my 128GB USB drive to collect some files from student laptops. Back on my Windows 7 computer the main folder inside my USB drive with all its sub folders has disappeared.

Mysteriously, and ominously a seemingly empty $RECYCLE.BIN folder had been added to the drive.

The drive shows that it is half full in My Computer so the folder and files seem to be there somewhere but they are invisible.

Using Recuva or digger to find the files and folders probably would have worked but it would have taken hours and I would have had to weed out all the files and folders that I had previously deleted.


Fortunately however, when I use explorer to search for the folder name in the drive, explorer finds the (invisible) folder in the original place at the top level of the USB, which I can click on and now open to find all its sub-folders and contents which seem to be intact. In other words the folder became invisible to normal explorer browsing but not invisible to the explorer search function. I am now moving all its contents to my hard drive. Done.

Check disk did not find the files but it did remove the name of the drive. I guess I will format the drive and move all the files back.