All of a sudden, my HDD has no content?? But its not broken!

Seanie M

Strange one this. I'll give the scenario - its on Windows 2000:

Everything was fine yesterday. Today, when I started up my pc, Windows Explorer is telling me I have no files on my f: drive. Its a Samsung 120GB hard drive, I have it cradled in a cd bay on IDE 1. Yet, when I right-click and select properties, my 30.8GB of data on the drive is shown in the pink and blue pie chart.

So, I do an error-check on it and restart the computer. Then, in Explorer, there is a new folder called "FOUND.000" with about 9,000 files, all the same icon - the one with two cog wheels, like a .dll file I think. They are all various sizes, but are labelled FILE0001 through to FILE 9704.

So, I select Search and type in a few names of files that are on this hard drive, and its saying there are none.

The drive defrags, can be scanned by Norton 2004 and AVG, and AVG actually comes up with names of proper files on the disk as it scans it, along the bottom status bar.

I'm at a loss. It seems the file allocation table, or registry seems to be at fault, like Windows can't read the contents. My c: drive is completely unaffected. No new programmes were installed, and the virus checks were clean. The same all happens in Safe Mode, and Last Known Good Configuration does nothing either.

Thoughts?

Seanie.

Fester3282

A great program to try is Ontrack's System Suite. You can make boot up floppies and restore everythings that's not physically damaged. - Even all that p0rn you deleted 6 times, 2 years ago.

you can download an evaluation version from Ontracks website , which will allow you to scan and see, but not restore.

Good luck

Seanie M

Thanks Fester.

One thing I have found out on it now, is that my drive was actually formatted to CHP from FAT32 - this format is used by Novell.

So, my drive has lost its ability to be read by Windows, I have found no viruses, Its been cobverted to CHP, and I have reclaimed some data from it, but all of it is corrupted.

Fluck Windows anyway.



Seanie.

angelofdeath

if it was formatted from fat32 to chp then wouldn't all the data be erased and how was it formatted to chp in the first place?

angelofdeath

by the way, ive never heard of a file system called chp, ive googled and found nothing

Seanie M

Thanks angelofdeath - I was told it was a Novell version.

And how it hapened in the first place is beyond me. I retraced my steps and found nothing out of the ordinary - no new websites, bogus email opening, installation of new programmes, error messages...

I'm buggered...