old hard drive shows up empty in Vista....

C

CNV

n00b
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Nov 15, 2005
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I unplugged a hard drive from my Vista machine that was used to store some data and when I plugged it back in today the folder was empty. Vista reads the drive and shows that the 750g drive has 300g's free, but it is empty. Any ideas what is going on? Thanks in advanced.
 
I've heard of people having this issue before, but I think it was with XP. A program called "winderstat" will show you exactly what's in that drive.

I have a portable mini hard drive that has it's own folder that contains installation software. Even when you view hidden files, you still can't see it, but I can see it with winderstat.
 
Thanks Chris, windirstat worked. I can view all my files now but I can't copy the files over to a new drive. ctrl C doesn't work, and there aren't any copy options.

I wanted to copy all the files over to my new 1tb drive, and then reformate this drive and hope that it will work normally again.
 
btw, there is an explore option but I'm unable to explore the main directory with all 100+ folders, but I can view it in WinDirStat. It says "access denied". I am able to explore each individual folders tho, but copying and pasting that much data file by file will take forever!
 
Are you still using the same Vista installation, or a new install.

If its a new install, you need to take ownership of the drive.
 
nessus said:
Are you still using the same Vista installation, or a new install.

If its a new install, you need to take ownership of the drive.
Click to expand...
Good point.

Right click on that drive, and go to security tab. Click on your user name, then make sure everything under allow is checked. If it's not, click your user name, then click edit and check all the allow boxes.
 
CNV said:
Thanks Chris, windirstat worked. I can view all my files now but I can't copy the files over to a new drive. ctrl C doesn't work, and there aren't any copy options.
Click to expand...
winderstat only shows files, I just wanted you to know they are still there.
 
bigdogchris said:
Good point.

Right click on that drive, and go to security tab. Click on your user name, then make sure everything under allow is checked. If it's not, click your user name, then click edit and check all the allow boxes.
Click to expand...

Still empty. I just plugged it into a XP machine and explorer showed it empty too... It still says that the 750g drive has 300g free. I'm starting to think the drive is busted...
 
CNV said:
Still empty. I just plugged it into a XP machine and explorer showed it empty too... It still says that the 750g drive has 300g free. I'm starting to think the drive is busted...
Click to expand...

have you tried accessing it in safe mode?

also try running chkdsk and see if it finds any errors.
 
See if you can see the files under cmd prompt, then copy them.

Whatever the drive letter is in my computer, go to cmd and type in cd x: (x is the drive letter) then type in dir and press enter

If you find it, then type in copy x:\folder c:\backup or something, to drop those files in your c: drive. If you want to copy a folder and it's sub folders, use robocopy instead (if your using vista, or use xcopy in XP).
 
i would try using a live cd like bartpe or UBCD and see if you can get stuff off from that
 
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