external hard drive failure?

So I've got an external which I use to store my music and movies. The brand is Fantom; this is basically it, but mine is 120 GB:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204075

It's got two initial folders: one is labeled "drivers" and the other is labeled "files". When I try to open the "files" folder I get an error message: "Folder is corrupt or unreadable". So I can't open it, and when I rightclick and go to Properties it says that the folder contains 0 bytes of information. Funny thing is, my other folder "drivers" works perfectly fine. So it's just one big section of my hard drive that got corrupted. I tried using the drive with my cousin's laptop, but I get the same message. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

A good place to start the process of solving the problem would be to download the latest version of HDTune from the official website.

http://www.hdtune.com/

Download it, Install it, and run a health check on the external hard drive. Instructions on how to do are on the website. Also, it may be a good idea to scan the HDD with an anti-virus program. If there is a problem with the HDD, then data recovery software would be the next step.

 

I did the error scan with HD Tune, but it says that there are no errors in the external hard drive.

 

Did you run chkdsk on it ??

Also try to take ownership of the folder....

 

If the test showed no bad sectors I'd just format the drive and be done with it. Maybe it was a factory mistake loading the folder on there.

 

chkdsk was unable to complete the disk check. should i just use some recovery software and then format?

 

Was there any data important to you in that folder ?? If not, just format t.

 

Why couldn't it complete? You better run another test to make sure the drive is good. Otherwise return it and get a new one. A brand new hard drive shouldn't be too troublesome if functioning properly.

 

no idea why the test stops.

i'd like to recover a few of the files but it's not necessary to recover the entire drive.

 

Does chkdsk stop with any error msg, or stops responding ?

To recover files, you can try out Recuva, and then format the drive.

 

stops with an error message: "chkdsk could not complete the disk check"

 

Run > Cmd > chkdsk drive letter: /f

 

so that pretty much deleted my folder...except properties shows that there still is 80 GB of files left on the drive. the folder doesn't even show up anymore.

 

What was deleted with what ? Did you format the drive ?

 

i haven't formatted yet. i tried using chkdsk like you said, but the next thing i know, the folder labeled "files" is gone. properties tab shows that I lost 20 GB of data, but the rest is nowhere to be found.

 

WT* ! That was a simple chkdsk command. I guess there was a major file structure error on that drive. What were the results of the chkdsk ??
Have you tried using Recuva ?

 

exchange that drive then. chkdsk wouldn't result in loss of data unless it found bad sectors which it couldn't fix...

 

Bad Sectors....Download WinDLG.zip, and run an extended scan on the USB drive to detect bad sectors.... (Its WD, but it detects and diagnoses bad sectors on all USB drives as well, runs well in XP)
Or, as Gregory stated, exchange the drive.

 

here's a screencap of chkdsk

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g211/notunsane/untitled.jpg

 

Well the log doesn't show bad sectors. It seems to show that the manufacturer did a botched job adding those folders .

Unless there is something specifically you need from that folder that can't be downloaded from the manufacturers website, just repartition, format, and leave it be.

 

Located in Master File Table, references to files or directories that no longer exist.

Have you (accidentally) deleted some files from the partition? (Or maybe the manufacturer/dealer did so) Just wondering because in that chkdsk log, it's deleting references to files/directories 17784 to 17791, yet there are only 15351 files. (But no bad sectors, so HDD should be fine)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/169404