(Lots of) files are "not erased" (recuva) but missing in explorer

unko · 08 May 2019

Well, great news here : while "playing" with cmd, i realised i could access the folder using the name displayed by minitool app (and that made me wonder : why is it only this app displaying the folder "broken name"? other app didn't do it..). I tried in explorer and i was in! I just cut/paste everything in a new folder. So i have everything back. I'm wondering if it's safe now to do a chkdsk? Since the corrupt folders are now empty, i guess yes? But i want to be sure, can't afford to loose much on that precious disk!

thomaseg1 · 08 May 2019

Fantastic, yes you can, I was worried that some of the files would be deleted with chkdsk.
After, you might want defrag the drive.
download macrium reflect free and image the drive. for safe keeping.

unko · 08 May 2019

Image? This is a memory disk with thousands of pictures, videos.. Copy paste to another disk is the way to go, but i don't have such disk for now.. Yes, all those thousands memory would've certainly gone wrong if chkdsk was applied before the fix. I'm not too confident in doing it still, no need to rush anyway now i guess..?

I'm wondering how to issue happened though. Never had any issue with that disk. I know it happened in the last 3days, since i made a directory tree backup and all was good back then. A sudden unplug of the drive can damage files in write, but not files in read as far i know..? I don't have a memory of unpluging out of idle time anyway..

PS: I use a lot of signs for folder renaiming, such as +!#~ etc.. All those allowed. I was wondering if that could cause trouble, it shouldn't though since allowed..

thomaseg1 · 08 May 2019

$ is used by Windows alot for upgrades and system folders.
For me other then the period , I use letters and numbers.
Personal preference I guess.

Try3 · 10 May 2019

no need to rush anyway now i guess..?

I agree. There is no need to rush. All you need to do is start making your backups before the drive fails without any warning.

By the way, I had a similar issue to yours once with a 1 year old 1TB disk. Sod's law - I had allowed a lot of files to accumulate without having backed them all up.
- All I managed to recover was a minor folder containing little more than my IE Favourites.
- None of the file recovery tools, including the MTPW you used, were able to help me.
- The disk had been behaving perfectly normally. I tried to copy a file, the screen dimmed for several seconds, the disk disappeared.

Denis

ricardobohner · 10 May 2019

The "memory disk" may have bad clusters or something. You shoud buy another one and than use chkdsk on that disk to see if it doesn't have any problems. Usually if a disk has bad clusters it only goes from bad to worse from that moment on since the bad clusters only increase over time.