External HD FOUND.000 folder won't display in Windows, will on Mac

I hope this is the right forum for this question.

I have an exFAT-formatted external hard drive I use with computers both Mac OS X and Windows 7.

Although the Mac has never had any issues, Windows 7 became upset a few days ago, started scolding me that the disk was dirty, and didn't let me write anything. (This may be because I disconnected the drive without ejecting it when the Windows machine was hibernating. I assumed it wouldn't be a problem because it wasn't busy with it. I bitterly regret this mistake.) I tried one of the options, involving scanning, but it didn't make the drive un-dirty. So I asked it to fix any broken files, figuring it would make Windows happy and leave my files the same; but when I did, one of my main folders, containing some AVI and MKV files amounting to about 23GB, vanished.

I looked up why this would happen, and the files, scrambled in chunks ranging in size from 30MB to 1.5GB, were visible in a FOUND.000 folder when I hooked the hard drive to the Mac. On the PC, I can't find anything. I changed the Folder Options to show hidden files, and I see some things that weren't visible before, like .TemporaryItems and .Trashes, but not the folder I want. The UnChk program I downloaded doesn't seem to be able to find it, and I don't know how to navigate to the F: drive to look for it in cmd; even if I did, I wouldn't know what to do with it.

What should I have done?

What can/should I do now?

Thank you so much.

jxc said:

I hope this is the right forum for this question.

I have an exFAT-formatted external hard drive I use with computers both Mac OS X and Windows 7.

Although the Mac has never had any issues, Windows 7 became upset a few days ago, started scolding me that the disk was dirty, and didn't let me write anything. (This may be because I disconnected the drive without ejecting it when the Windows machine was hibernating. I assumed it wouldn't be a problem because it wasn't busy with it. I bitterly regret this mistake.) I tried one of the options, involving scanning, but it didn't make the drive un-dirty. So I asked it to fix any broken files, figuring it would make Windows happy and leave my files the same; but when I did, one of my main folders, containing some AVI and MKV files amounting to about 23GB, vanished.

I looked up why this would happen, and the files, scrambled in chunks ranging in size from 30MB to 1.5GB, were visible in a FOUND.000 folder when I hooked the hard drive to the Mac. On the PC, I can't find anything. I changed the Folder Options to show hidden files, and I see some things that weren't visible before, like .TemporaryItems and .Trashes, but not the folder I want. The UnChk program I downloaded doesn't seem to be able to find it, and I don't know how to navigate to the F: drive to look for it in cmd; even if I did, I wouldn't know what to do with it.

What should I have done?

What can/should I do now?

Thank you so much.

If I were you(And I do make mistakes but bear with me.)
I would,
1. on your mac, if the files are intact in the FOUND.000 folder, copy them back into another folder.
2. back up the data to your primary hard drive(seriously, this could be dangerous).
3. on windows run a chkdsk on it from command prompt. ie: chkdsk /r /f F:.
4. If it works, and files are deleted then put them back on from the backup you made in step 2.
5. If windows still complains then ignore it.

OR, more guaranteed way of doing it:
1. on your mac, if the files are intact in the FOUND.000 folder, copy them back into another folder.
1. back up all the data to (one of your)your internal harddrive(/s).
2. format the drive to exFAT/NTFS/FAT32.
3. replace all the data.

Although, if I were you I would also format the drive to NTFS(backup first, formats erase all data).
Simply because it's more stable and windows will complain less.

Also MAKE SURE that write caching is disabled(from Device Manager), although, I am guessing that since it gives you the option to eject it is probably already disabled.

As for the scrambling thing, there is probably some program out there that will unscramble it.
There was probably a good reason windows did do that but I don't know.
You might have to piece the files back together manually...
EDIT: Ahh found this. 7 Ways To Recover CHK Files Created by CHKDSK and SCANDISK ? Raymond.CC
Might be worth a read.
Before using one of these programs copy the .CHK files to another folder on the disk that windows can "see".
OR
Follow what it says here: Microsoft Corporation.
This should allow you to see the folder but I'm not 100% sure.

I don't actually have enough internal hard drive space to back up the external HD, which is a bit of a problem. The external hard drive is formatted to exFAT so that both Mac and Windows can deal with it.

But in any event it makes sense that I should be able to copy the FOUND.000 folder and replace it with a copy, and then the copy might be readable on the Windows machine.

I actually realized later that I didn't have an option to eject. I've just been making sure that all my windows and files on the hard drive are closed when I unplug it, and it hasn't given me any further grief.

jxc said:

I don't actually have enough internal hard drive space to back up the external HD, which is a bit of a problem. The external hard drive is formatted to exFAT so that both Mac and Windows can deal with it.

But in any event it makes sense that I should be able to copy the FOUND.000 folder and replace it with a copy, and then the copy might be readable on the Windows machine.

I actually realized later that I didn't have an option to eject. I've just been making sure that all my windows and files on the hard drive are closed when I unplug it, and it hasn't given me any further grief.

I strongly suggest you make sure that write caching is disabled for that drive, it may give you an occasional speed boost but when it boils down to it, it would really suck to lose all your data, and if you make a small mistake that could potentially happen.
Just my thoughts.