Folder log file corrupt

[dave]

I recently was in the process of backing up an extra hard
drive (containing 5 folders) when the process locked up.
I discovered the problem and reinstalled Win XP's driver
for my external LaCie hard drive. To my dismay, the
original source drive only had 4 folders left. The 5th
folder and most important is now unrecognizeable!
These are NTFS hard drives...........
Nothing was transferred (cut and pasted) to my external
LaCie backup drive; however, the original hard drive lost
a folder. When looking at the properties of the hard
drive, the data size is still showing for all 5 folders
but I can only see 4 folders.
How can I recover my logfile info so as to see the 5th
folder?
I thought Microsoft's Q283340 would resolve my problem but
I couldn't get this to work! I did exactly as discribed
but kept getting a "Command ..." type error when booting
into MS-DOS with my created boot disk.
I did the following:
C:\chkdsk M: /v /f
Thanks, Dave

[Sharon F]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 01:14:41 -0700, dave wrote:

> I recently was in the process of backing up an extra hard
> drive (containing 5 folders) when the process locked up.
> I discovered the problem and reinstalled Win XP's driver
> for my external LaCie hard drive. To my dismay, the
> original source drive only had 4 folders left. The 5th
> folder and most important is now unrecognizeable!
> These are NTFS hard drives...........
> Nothing was transferred (cut and pasted) to my external
> LaCie backup drive; however, the original hard drive lost
> a folder. When looking at the properties of the hard
> drive, the data size is still showing for all 5 folders
> but I can only see 4 folders.
> How can I recover my logfile info so as to see the 5th
> folder?
> I thought Microsoft's Q283340 would resolve my problem but
> I couldn't get this to work! I did exactly as discribed
> but kept getting a "Command ..." type error when booting
> into MS-DOS with my created boot disk.
> I did the following:
> C:\chkdsk M: /v /f
> Thanks, Dave

If you used Cut and Paste, the one folder was removed from the source drive
but did not end up where it was supposed to due to the error that occurred.
"Deleted" or removed files are not really gone. The folder and file names
are removed from view in your disk management tools and the space that
these items occupied is marked as available for new writes. Until new files
overwrite the now available space, they are still there but out of reach
using the standard disk tools included with Windows.

1) Avoid using the source drive as much as possible until this is resolved.

2) I can understand why you thought it would help but suggest that you
avoid running chkdsk until situation is resolved. You *could* ask chkdsk to
give a report now but I wouldn't use /f (fix) at this point as it may mess
up that missing folder and its files some more.

3) Get your hands on some data recovery software. Follow the program
directions to recover the lost files. Usually these programs run from a
floppy disk or bootable CD so that the drive you're trying to recover is
disturbed as little as possible. An internet search will turn up lots of
programs in varying price ranges. A good free program for this task can be
found here: http://hccweb1.bai.ne.jp/~hcj58401/ There are also services
that specialize in data recovery but they are quite expensive. Depending on
the value of the data, the cost may be worthwhile. Check the yellow pages
or, again, search the internet.

4) In the future, use a different method to transfer than CUT and Paste.
For example, using COPY and paste, if the transfer fails the original files
are still intact. Delete the source files after you have confirmed that the
transfer was successful.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP/ Windows XP - Shell/User