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tamoeba

Hi there

I defragmented my D drive, after which the contents of some folders where largely gone (or seemed that way). I checked the amount of free space left on the drive, and it was the same as before the defrag, which seemed to indicate that the files were still there (I checked that their properties weren't set to hidden, just in case, even though the folder's set up to display hidden files.)

I opened media player, and typed in the path for a file that wasn't displayed and it opened. I tired this with all the file names I could remember correctly and they all worked, so at least I know the data's still there, I just can't see it in explorer.

Another odd thing is that of the two folders affected, one displays it's properties as it had before the problem (i.e. the correct number of files and size etc) while still only showing a fraction of the content if you actually open the folder, whereas the other folder affected displays it's properties in accordance to what you can actually see in the folder, although, as I said, you can still access the 'hidden' files if you know the exact file name.

I tired data recovery software on the off-chance, but that didn't come up with any of the files, which I suppose makes sense if the data's still there.

Thanks for checking this post out, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I posted this in the XP area rather than the HDD area as I'm guessing that's where the problem lies, but if it needs to be moved, go for it.

Hengis

Hi and welcome to PCHF

Let me get this clear in my head...you haven't actually lost any files or folders and yet when you look at the properties of the folders they are showing less data that prior to the defragment of the drive?

What XP service pack do you have installed on your PC?

tamoeba

Hi, thanks for replying so quickly.

To clarify, when I open one of the folders that has been affected, only a small amount of the files that should be there can be seen, and therefore accessed through windows explorer. If, however, I open Media Player, and manually open a file that can?t be seen, by tying in the exact file name, the file opens.

In the case of one folder, if you look at the properties of the folder itself, it says that it contains 275 files. If you then open the folder, only 53 can be seen.
With the other folder, the properties show 41 files, which is the same number as you can see when the folder is opened. Before I defragmented the drive, that folder contained hundreds of files. Again, with both of these folders, the files that can?t be seen can be opened through the relevant applications by typing in the file name.

So what my problem boils down to is that although no data seems to have been lost, I can?t see or access it directly through windows explorer.
I?ve got XP Service pack 2 installed.

Hope this clears things up a bit

double_a_ron

Hi Tamoeba,

Welcome to PCHF!

This is indeed a strange problem.

Which defrag utility did you use by chance.

There are a couple of utilities you could try,

First do any of these folders contain subfolders?

You could try a System Restore

or, if you have an orignal XP disk you could try a systemfile check.

Place the XP disk in the drive and then open your start menu and click on "Run..." and type "sfc /scannow".

That will check your system files and replace any corrupted files with their originals. It may or may ot help but it never hurts either.

tamoeba

Success! I ran a system file check, and also set CHKDSK to run after a reboot, with the ?automatically fix file system errors? and ?scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors? options enabled. Started up XP and the files were back

Thanks for all your help, this is a fantastic resource.

joe5

Good news , and well done Tamoeba.

Marked as Resolved , and see you around the forums.