There’s almost no need for an intro to external hard drives, considering that almost everyone uses it nowadays. External hard drives are wonderful portable, on the go storage devices which makes data available at your finger-tips. It can be used to store a variety of files like documents, images, videos, audio etc. in a way similar to your internal hard drives.
Although external hard drives make a reliable means of storing data, you can sometimes encounter issues with it. In this article, let us discuss an error that causes your files to go missing. The bizarre thing is that even if the files are missing, they show that they occupy a certain space. What is the reason for this? Are the files hidden or are they corrupt? Let us find out more in this article and also discuss some solutions to resolve this problem.
Solution 1: Enable ‘Show Hidden Files’
- In Windows, right click on the Start button and select Search
- Type ‘folder’ and from the results, click on Show Hidden Files and Folders
- In the Advanced Settings menu, select Show hidden files, Folders and drives and click Ok
Now that hidden files are enabled, see if you can find the files on your hard drive. If not, proceed to the next solution.
Solution 2: Take ownership
- Click on Start and select Windows Explorer
- Right click on the external hard drive and click Properties > Security > Advanced > Owner
- Under ‘Change Owner to’ section, select the desired user to change to owner
- Also check the box next to Replace owner on container and objects
- Then click Apply
Now that you’ve changed the owner and assigned all permissions, you should be able to see all the files on the external hard drives. However, if you still cannot see the files and the problems still persists, your drive could be corrupted and needs repair. Repairing the drive is described in the next section.
Solution 3: Run CHKDSK
If the external hard drive is corrupted, you may have trouble viewing files on it. In that case, CHKDSK is a wonderful tool to repair file system errors. To run CHKDSK,
- Go to the Command Prompt by clicking on Windows + X keys and selecting Command Prompt (Admin)
- Then type the following command
CHKDSK /R /X: (Here, please replace X with the corresponding drive letter)
This command will fix all file system errors and also check for bad sectors should there be any. Once this command is complete, all errors should be fixed and you should be able to view files on your drive. However, if the file is still missing, you may need to resort to data recovery tools like Hi5 Software.
Restore missing files using Hi5 Software
Hi5 data recovery software is the ultimate tool to recover missing data from corrupted external hard drives. It retrieves data using a read-only mechanism, so you will not find the recovered data any different from the original. All your partitions in the drive along with original structure are recovered using Hi5 Ssoftware.
Not just external hard drives, Hi5 software can also be used to recover data from other storage devices like USB’s, SD cards and from your systems. If you are experiencing data loss, download a trial and give it a try today!
