OMG I need help BAD

[Thrust]

Recently had to reformat Wife's pc. So I grabed all her "important" stuff- about 1.5GB, and copied it to my other pc that has a 400GB hard drive that's almost empty. After about 3 hours (wireless) the transfer was complete and I reformatted her hard drive and reinstalled the OS.

But now I can't access the files on that other pc, or ANY files at all on that drive. The hard drive says "352GB free of 372GB", showing there's 20 GB of files on the drive. Yet the 4 folders it shows on the drive show empty. About the only thing I can do is make a folder. But I can't paste any files not only in any folder, but also in the root directory of the hard drive.

After scouring the internet I found a tutorial that says to "change it's 8.3 file name". But when I try, I get the same error. "Could not find this item. This is no longer located in <path>. Verify the item's location and try again."

I'm so in the doghouse if I can't recover these files for her. H-E-L-P!

 

[bigseb]

Is the folder set to show hidden files and folders? If not you won't see 'em. Go to Organize ---> Folder And Search Options ---> View ---> mark 'show hidden folders, files and drives'.

Do you have permission to access (read/copy and write) data to that drive? Give yourself full access and try again.

I hope this helps, mate. I lost my wife's files once too... made Stalin seem like a picnic...

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Thrust, welcome to Seven Forums!



Have a look at the tutorial at the link below, it may help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html?ltr=T

 

[bigseb]

Also, 3 hrs to transfer 1.5Gb seems a bit much. Is it possible there may have some glitch and the files are corrupted?

 

[FZ21Z]

Also, 3 hrs to transfer 1.5Gb seems a bit much. Is it possible there may have some glitch and the files are corrupted?

I agree, and should have used another method to back-up...

After about 3 hours (wireless) the transfer was complete

 

[Thrust]

Yes, folder permissions are fine. I call that other pc my "server" b/c it has all my files on it. If I didn't have folder sharing and persmissions setup it wouldn't let me paste any files over my LAN to it. This is something I've never seen before. And if you wanted to save a few files, what's wrong with copy and pasting? Until now I've never had an issue. I have over 4TB of files and all of them were saved to my server from my main pc.

 

[Frostmourne]

Get an Ubuntu live cd, boot, recover onto USB.

 

[OldBloke]

Something which could be worth trying:

Use the file manager on a linux live CD.
I recommend Ubuntu because it's very easy for Windows users who have never used Linux before. Also its most recent version will almost certainly have the right drivers for all your hardware.

You can download the latest Ubuntu istaller from here:
Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu

It;s an iso which you burn to CD, which will be bootable.
Although it's the Ubuntu installer, there's no need to install it to your hard disk, you can just boot it to use the Ubuntu OS direct from the CD. It has a good file manager on its menu, very similar to Windows Explorer.

Ubuntu disobeys all Windows protections about ownership. I have used it to copy files from User folders which I could not access in Windows.

Edit added:
after posting that I notice Frostmourne has also suggested it

 

[RknRusty]

I'll bet Ubuntu can read them. It's bailed out my tail a couple of times when I thought all was lost. My copy has a good disk partition utility included too, better than the Win 7 utility.

 

[Thrust]

Thanks guys, you have no idea how much I preshadit. Weird thing is, I can RIGHT CLICK>NEW>Folder all day, but if I try to paste anything into that new folder I get an "Item Not Found" dialog box which further states: "Could not find this item. This is no longer located in <path>. Verify the item's location and try again". I get this error even if I try to paste anything on the root drive. Will try Linux boot disk when i get home from work. Thanks again

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

On an off chance, have a look at this tutorial at the link below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/516-context-menu-add-copy-folder-move-folder.html?ltr=C

 

[Thrust]

3 different cd's with Linux failed to boot. (2) Xubuntu and (1) Ubuntu all failed with i/o errors so i decided to remove the hard drive and try it on a different pc. When i went to do this, it was then I realized this was an external HD via USB. When i disconnected the HD first thing i noticed was that the HD was very warm. About an hour later I hooked it up to wifes pc and it worked just fine. I grabbed all the backup files and all was good- so I thought. I took the drive and hooked it back up to my "server" pc and about 2 hours later noticed it was making a constant, consistent ticking noise, so I turned on the monitor and sure enough, the drive was inaccessible. At this point further troubleshooting is necessary to determine if it's the HD or the enclosure.
I would like to extend my most gracious "THANKS" to all who assisted.

 

[fseal]

Ouch, the constant ticking noise is a REALLY BAD THING. The drive may be on the virge of complete failure, temp may be pushing it over the edge then it recovers when cooled off but I would not trust it at all at this point...

 

[whs]

It looks like something happened to the MFT on that drive. You could try Recuva. It can find files even if they are marked "deleted" in the MFT. Although not guaranteed, it's worth a try.
Now I know why the investment into 6 external disks and 12 USB sticks was worth the money. LOL.

 

[belikexp]

Recently had to reformat Wife's pc.

I know my opinion is after the fact but it would have been wise to buy another hard drive and format the new one instead. You could have bought an enclosure with USB to copy all the files over.

 

[robin77]

So you got your wifes backup files, right?

About the drive.... throw it away as fast as possible! I had this happening a few times already.
If there is still any other important data on the drive I would recommend the following:
- let the drive completely cool off for a few hours and just to be on the save side connect it to your wifes machine (since it worked fine on her machine before). point the largest cooling fan that you can find in the house on the HD and quickly grab all necessary files as fast as you can after turning on the machine. Don't spend any time to sort anything first or move files around or rename. JUST COPY OFF THE DRIVE as fast as you can. The drive can say goodbye forever any minute.
- connect the drive to the fastest connection that is availabe since transfer speed is important if it's working for limited time.
- get the most important stuff first. most likey docs.
- if you have many files and folders then do not copy in large chunks (not all files at once) since most likely the drive will start with this clicking and hanging on certain files and folders. this way its easier to figure out where it happens and which files already copied ok.
- do not leave the computer while you copy. sit next to it and observe how it's doing.
- if you notice the clicking sound again. make a note of the folders or filename where it happens, stop the copy and continue with other files. (spend your time with the problem files at the end - once you already got everything else)
- if it starts clicking, and nothing else happens for a while but you cannot interrupt the copy process then reboot and avoid the folder where it happened next time. until you got all other files already.
- if you have acronis or ghost you can try it too. but since it most likely will take longer i first would grab the most important stuff manually.
- once you are done do yourself a favour an immediately throw away the drive.

It might crap out on you anytime without ever coming back. I have gone through that a few times.... ; )
It is almost everytime the same. Once this clicking sound starts the countdown is ticking.
Sometimes a complete reformat might help. But you most certainly already have bad sectors.
thinking everything is fine and it was just a hickup.... is NOT recommended : )