Mar242012

Why can I not view the folders on my external hard disk?

shegzy4 asks:

I have a problem with my external hard disk. I saved some school documents on my drive. When I got to the school computer to copy my home task, I copied&pasted, then I noticed all my folders went missing, except ones that are not in folder. I still have my used memory, but can’t see my folders. Please help me!


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20 Answers -

0 votes

ha14

March 24, 2012

Go to Control Panel->Appearance and Personalization->Folder Options
In view tab check show hidden file and also show protect folder of system 

on “Start” –>Run–>type cmd and click on OK.
if your hard drive as G:
Enter this command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:*.*
Then check if your real files will be showed

Shegzy4piddy

when i try to use the RUN., it says “patch not found in G”

March 24, 2012
ha14

are you sure that the folders they were not suddenly erased.

on your computer is your hard drive label G?

try Re-enable II, portable
http://www.tangosoft.co.uk/re-enablev2.html
–copy the soft to the external hard drive
– once program opens, click on tools
– select scan and delete Auturun.inf
– once that is completed, click on tools again
– click on reset files/ folder attributes

March 24, 2012
Shegzy4piddy

i did what you asked me to do but same problem., cant find the folders…after the scan and delete auturum.inf, it shows a little page where i see all folders in my drive but i can’t click on them., so i reset files/folder att. but still same problem…the folders are still hidden.

March 25, 2012
Shegzy4piddy

and should i delete everything i see in the auturun scan little page???

March 25, 2012
Shegzy4piddy

i tried using the first method you gave me 
attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:*.* 
i changed my g to j because my drive is J, but nothing display in the Run and my folders not there yet.

March 25, 2012
vamsi

Hi,

I have tried above mentioned procedure to recollect my data from my hard disk (external) but still the same i can see that hard disk memory was occupied but the file are not visible. please help me resolve this problem there so many imp files are missing…

Thanks in advance.. your advice will be very help to me.

October 28, 2012
Shegzy4piddy

WOW IT WORKS NOW., I CAN’T BELIEVE., THANKS A LOT., THE RUN WORKS AND I CAN SEE ALL MY FOLDERS.

March 25, 2012
ha14

glad that was fixed with you, you worked hard with all steps and finally rewarded. Perhaps deleting infected autorun.inf  helped following RUN method.

March 25, 2012
Rick

Hi, i have an issue trying to do the first option (run), when I run it, it says acces denied to every one of my files currently existing in my usb drive.

Also, when I try to use Renable II, it does clean up all autoruns, from my drive except for one in my computer drive.

(USBIMMUNIZER wont detect my drive, and so does musbfixer D: )

The curious thing is, that even If i cant see my folders, if I write the addres, “E/folder2/music” it opens correctly, any ideas friends? (yes I already selected folder option to let me see hidden folders :( )

July 26, 2012
Kunal1306

i found some files on a folder but they are in unreadable type. do you delete the autorun files?

October 10, 2012
Vastu

Hi there

I tried the steps outlines, but still cant read the folders on the external harddrive. I right clicked on properties for the drive in explorer and it shows that my drive is full, so all my data and folders are still there. Any help you can give me please, Thanks in advance

May 26, 2012
ha14

try the folowing

1. Go to control Panel, Folder Options — select VIEW— select Show hidden
files and folders and uncheck Hide protected operating system files
(recommended)  click APPLY
2. go to your external hard drive  delete the virus and all the shortcut folders that have
no data in them. create new folders (give the same name as your normal non infected hidden folders) and copy the data from YOUR hidden folders
into them. once that is done delete the old hidden folders.
3. enter task manager— find the virus program that is still running which will
have the same name as the one you just deleted off the hard drive
4. go back to control panel, Folder options select view- select DO
NOT show hidden files and folders and recheck Hide protected operating system
files (recommended).

perhaps you can delet shortcut virus?
http://ketopc.blogspot.fr/2012/05/musbfixer-format-write-protected-usb.html

May 26, 2012
udit

dude you are awesome… i tried a lot to find my lost data…. but finally i found the complete stuff… thanks buddy

June 24, 2012
sk

thanks man u rock i did work

July 24, 2012
tapas

WOW…it worked..thanks :)

August 24, 2012
Spk

Why these are not working for me? I tried using first method, i was getting a blank command box, then i tried 2nd method, i could able to delete atleast eight autorun, but still after this i cant access my hidden files in my HD. my folders are selected as unhidden. still i cant see any of my files from my used memory in HD. I am worried nw. I even tried MUSBFIXER, but for tht it is not allowing me to select hard drive. can you please help me on this master? Plz.. my 200 GB memory i need to recover from my HD.

August 25, 2012
DanP

Man you really are great, thank you so much!

October 3, 2012
Manoj

Boss, you saved my life. I tried so many ways but finally this formula of yours worked and I could retrieve all my missing data. Thanks a ton and God bless you.

October 18, 2012
doud

CANT THANK YOU ENOUGH!

October 20, 2012
Daniel

The cmd-command worked for me as well, thank you SO much! Now I don’t have to format my hard drive, and I found all my 60GB of photos from an around the world trip :-)

July 11, 2012
Pren

Hey there , thank you you suggestion work for me , got all my work back …thank you

July 15, 2012
hassan

thank you after attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:*.*
i can see my folder

thanks

July 23, 2012
Marco

Fantastic!!! that really solved the problem…you are a great geek!!

August 16, 2012
ali

hi dear HA14, since it seems ur an expert in this field i need you to do me this favor please. and i beg you to help me

i did this step and it says path not found. yes im sure my drive is G and i used g for the command too.

since a week ago my HDD stopped loading at all. i can only see the HDD in “mycomputer” but can not open, can not get properties or anything. i did some system checking and hard drive manager testing and i found out that if i format it i can re use again. but i SERIOUSLY need all y information. if you help me i owe you big time man.
i dunno. i think its some trojan or malware shit in it since i remember the last time i was using in “NO antivirus ” environment and stuff
my HDD is a 1.5TB WD but i have it for like 2 yrs already

please please help me man. i beg you

August 18, 2012
Paras Bilung

thanks man its save my life…

August 20, 2012
Ali.H

Sir, U rock..
Thanks..

August 23, 2012
Aung Myo Win

Hi, Thank u very much. i did it.

October 2, 2012
anudeep

excellent mate..

thats worked for me

October 10, 2012
dgvfbe

your so so awesome, my name is henry and you just ended a string of hiccups of fear of losing almost a terabyte of data…thanks a batch, worked like a charm.

October 11, 2012
Terry

these are not working for me :’(…dude please add me on facebook/gtalk and help me in saving my data and my life :( …please help i beg to u :’(

October 14, 2012
ha14

see if UVK can help
Unhide user files and folders
http://www.carifred.com/uvk/help/system_repair.php

Windows batch script to unhide files hidden by virus
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8095002/windows-batch-script-to-unhide-files-hidden-by-virus

October 14, 2012
Chand

Great it works for me now I can see all the files. Thanks

October 23, 2012
Tally

I do not understand .

October 31, 2012
Rohit

it worked and thanks a lot….

November 5, 2012
0 votes

hdd

May 31, 2012

I have the same problem and i tried your first method ha14, i got a long list of the folders with ‘Access Denied’ in the beginning in the prompt window! :(
Checked my hard drive..nothing happened…the second method also didn’t work..if it worked for Shegzy4piddy..why not for me? :(

Please help!

ha14

not sure why, depends on how the situation occured I guess also infections

Bitdefender usb immunizer
http://labs.bitdefender.com/projects/usb-immunizer/overview/

mUSBfixer Format Write-Protected USB Drive
http://ketopc.blogspot.fr/2012/05/musbfixer-format-write-protected-usb.html

Don’t Be Afraid Repair Infected USB Drive
http://ketopc.blogspot.fr/2012/05/dont-be-afraid-repair-infected-usb.html

perhaps you have to take ownership of the hard drive
http://techfleece.com/2011/05/15/how-to-take-ownership-of-files-or-folders-or-an-entire-hard-drive/

June 2, 2012
le me

Got the same error too. But I tried again and left my laptop for an hour, when I got back it was actually still running something in the background and after Access Denied it started listing the files that were missing from my HD. So now they are safely back in their folders!

Thanks a lot for this fix!

July 19, 2012
0 votes

boom

June 11, 2012

I have the same problem, tried with solution 1 couldn’t work, with solution 2 the problem is it scan not my external hdd but C. What to do?

ha14

which solution two? if do not scan your external hdd perhpas you have to point to the hard drive.

unhide
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/unhide/

June 13, 2012
0 votes

popa mihai

July 1, 2012

man thanx a lot for help the command attrib -h -r -s /s /d i:*.*
worked for me tajnx again for help

0 votes

Gabriel Carlo Garais

July 11, 2012

thanks a lot bro this is so work it…
i really dont know how can i fix my external hardisk all file on my external is very important and i never stop to find solution for this, and thanks God. and im very very thankful for this, more power and God bless you bro… thanks again.

Hyper

Thanx alot.. i tried attrib -h -r -s /s /d i:*.* and it worked, i got all my folders back, but i still cannot remove the virus because mUSBfix software does not show my external drive

July 15, 2012
0 votes

Asad Malik

July 26, 2012

Hi ha14,

Thanx alot man your solution really worked. I am so glad. God bless you :)

0 votes

raj

August 17, 2012

i tried your both method, but both attempt failed help me

0 votes

Ganesh

August 25, 2012

Hi my portable Western Digital hard disk is not detected by any OS but the hard disk is showing under Disk management.i tried all the steps to make ma hard disk visible but still it is not detected by My Computer. Please help me to make ma hard disk visible in my Laptop.

0 votes

jack

September 1, 2012

ha14 ,you r awesome dude.your formula is working on all external storage devices .thanks a lot again

0 votes

sathish434

September 2, 2012

first update your anti virus and scan your external disk and your computer hard disk

goto folder option ->view->uncheck hide operating files ->after download and install the attribute changer ->

open the window explorer-> right click the folder ->click change attributes-> uncheck system and hidden values

download link

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Attribute-Changer-Download-6972.html

0 votes

God Father

September 5, 2012

dude your so fuckin awsome.. ur command worked out really thank you so much @Ha14

0 votes

mohd sibi

September 14, 2012

i have 500gb external hard disk,but everytime i connect to my laptop,my laptop or other pc/laptop cannot search/read the files inside it but all files are inside it,i also still can read/search the folders/files inside use a manual search only.its take a lot of time to found all files inside,why?
in my hdisk all kind of karaoke songs.

0 votes

Amar harde

September 18, 2012

i had problem of my file it is not opening due to i had been protected my file from cmd command in such way .1)i had selected paritcular folder.eg:d folder
2) then i had given this command”cacls filename /e /p everyone:n”.
then this folder was protected but when i format my c .this folder was not opening please give me answer of this question please i am in problem please solve this problem please anybody help me i will be thank for that person please

0 votes

kobicabunoc

September 20, 2012

thanks a lot,it also solve my problem,mine is WD 500gigs external HD,i used attrib -s -h /s /d.

0 votes

Alabi Dayo

September 24, 2012

you are to good

0 votes

kikila

September 25, 2012

My Western Digital external hard drive, the power does not work. How do I get my files out of this drive?

0 votes

Quiphen96

October 1, 2012

ha14, thanks bro! cmd really worked for me! Thanks! :)

0 votes

Nuon

October 17, 2012

so did I,I still can not solve this problem. all recommendations nowadays can not help anything.We have to wait about 5years more.thanks

0 votes

Nicos Agroyiannis

October 21, 2012

Hello ha14

You have helped me as well. You are great. Thank you !!!

0 votes

Omar Fleifel

October 26, 2012

DEAR ALL, THIS ACTUALLY WORKS THANKS TO ha14

“Go to Control Panel->Appearance and Personalization->Folder Options
In view tab check show hidden file and also show protect folder of system
on “Start” –>Run–>type cmd and click on OK.
if your hard drive as G:
Enter this command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:*.*
Then check if your real files will be showed”