External Hard Drive problem

[Night Rush]

i read alot on here but ive never posts but ive got a bit of a problem with my external drive...
so here's whats up i go to reformat my primary drive with windows 7 RC i back up all my desktop stuff to my external and then when i get it back up and going reformated all i can view is the last folder i had up being the one with all my desktop back up... ive pluged it into about 4 different computers now and nothing has worked... about a week or so ago i went to view my music and it was all in some weird scypitc looking font i closed my explore and re-opened it and every thing was fine...

ive ran check disk on it and seems to be working fine... except for the fact i can see all of my files just the ones that are in my desktop back up folder

so if any one knows what this problem is or has had it before and could point me in a right dirceciton to take in fixing it if it can be fixed that would be awesome.

Thanks,
Night Rush

 

[MrF]

Check the drive under the Windows 7 (or Vista or XP) disk manager.
How much used space does it show?
Is that the amount of data you expect, or is it missing some?

 

[Night Rush]

it shows up as if all my files are still there using 220gb/500gb its just i cant see those files

 

[Old Hippie]

Weird.

I'd try removing the drive and connect it internally.

If no joy, I'd run a software recovery program while it was connected internally.

 

[MrF]

i go to reformat my primary drive with windows 7 RC i back up all my desktop stuff to my external

This is all there is in the long original post that talks about what was backed up (No offense)! It seems a little bit cryptic.

What exactly did you backup? Did you only backup what was on the desktop?
Did you use a backup software? What?
After you did the backup, did you check if you could see the backup files?

Have you enabled the view of hidden files now?
Have you used a disk usage tool to see where all the used space is? An example of such a tool is TreeSize (http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml).

 

[Night Rush]

as for what i backed up i did not use a back up softwar i just copied all the files i needed to keep onto my drive under a folder called "date" - back up ... just my COD4 profile what music i had sitting in my documents and a few game files for guildwars my build templets and screen shots folder any my unsorted pics i that i dumped on there from my camera... thats all i had backed up

the backed up files are all i can see that was the last folder i had open and now when i got explore the drive reads as if thats the only folder there and it opens as if that is the drive i dont get any other file options. yes hidden files are turned on that was one of the first things i tried

no i didnt really know of any tools to use to check that one thing i was hoping some one might know to use... ill try TreeSize TY