External HD folder is now a 0KB file

ShoelessKevin · 09-10-2009, 09:27 AM

I have a Maxtor OneTouch4 500GB external Harddrive that I use on my XP machine with SP2 for backing-up data on my internal drives. I have had the drive since November 2007.

My music folder, which contains ~50GB of data on the external drive has turned into a file that is 0 KB. If I click on it Windows asks me what program I want to open it with! Oh man. I have run checkdisk on my home XP machine 2-3 times and it 'successfully' completes, but the issue is not resolved. I have had other minor issues in the past that were fixed with chkdsk. I am currently running chkdsk on my Vista work computer hoping that it works a bit differently and can fix the issue.

The ~50GB of space is still allocated as being used on the harddrive, so the data should be somewhere.

This issue is very similar to: Problems Opening some folders

and could be this issue, but the file is not 32KB: Folders in HD turned into clusters

Both of these issues are fairly recent and I wonder if it is due to some hardware update received? Also, did the folder possibly reach some theoretical limit for an external drive?

Thanks for any help.

Baldy Kristian · 11-05-2009, 05:20 AM

Hi Shoeless Kevin, I have the same problem iwth a maxtor 1tb external harddrive, have you figured out how to fix it yet? Cheers BK

donbaly · 11-05-2009, 11:08 AM

once Windows asks you what program you want to use to open a folder, try running a virus scan.

ShoelessKevin · 11-10-2009, 10:14 AM

Hello Baldy,

The Vista chkdisk that I had mentioned did not fix the problem, so I kept the drive unplugged for several weeks in hopes of preventing more directories from meeting this fate. And hopefully in the meantime I would find some sort of resolution.

After no solution for weeks I decided to simply reformat the drive. As all of the data I had on it was purely back-up, I did the reformat and prayed my main hard drives didn't experience a problem before I got the chance to re-back-them-up. After the reformat finished I installed the OneTouch software and everything backed up and the drives works again. I have not noticed any issues with it.

In the past I have noticed a way to monitor your drive. Get the properties of the drive (in Windows File Explorer click in the main directory) and see how much space is used. Then from the same main directory select all of the folders and get the properties of them. If the space used is not identical (or very similar) the drive is starting to have problems. This would get fixed for me by doing a chkdisk, but I suspect still left something broken. After awhile it became irreparable by chkdisk and I noticed this issue.

I do not believe it is a virus because I have not noticed any remotely similar issue on my main hard drives. I do everything on the main drives and only use the external drive for back-up, so I don't think it would be infected first or only infected.

I do believe that the drive has some problems managing the file allocation tables, and they can become corrupted beyond repair.

I would recommend reformatting your drive and eventually buying a new one when you can. I will be keeping my eye open for some good black friday deals coming up. Hopefully you have your files elsewhere and/or you can recover most of the files from the drive before reformatting.

-Kevin

09-10-2009, 09:27 AM	#1 (permalink)
ShoelessKevin Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 2 OS: XP sp2	External HD folder is now a 0KB file I have a Maxtor OneTouch4 500GB external Harddrive that I use on my XP machine with SP2 for backing-up data on my internal drives. I have had the drive since November 2007. My music folder, which contains ~50GB of data on the external drive has turned into a file that is 0 KB. If I click on it Windows asks me what program I want to open it with! Oh man. I have run checkdisk on my home XP machine 2-3 times and it 'successfully' completes, but the issue is not resolved. I have had other minor issues in the past that were fixed with chkdsk. I am currently running chkdsk on my Vista work computer hoping that it works a bit differently and can fix the issue. The ~50GB of space is still allocated as being used on the harddrive, so the data should be somewhere. This issue is very similar to: Problems Opening some folders and could be this issue, but the file is not 32KB: Folders in HD turned into clusters Both of these issues are fairly recent and I wonder if it is due to some hardware update received? Also, did the folder possibly reach some theoretical limit for an external drive? Thanks for any help.

11-05-2009, 05:20 AM	#2 (permalink)
Baldy Kristian Registered User Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1 OS: XP SP2	Re: External HD folder is now a 0KB file Hi Shoeless Kevin, I have the same problem iwth a maxtor 1tb external harddrive, have you figured out how to fix it yet? Cheers BK

11-05-2009, 11:08 AM	#3 (permalink)
donbaly Registered User Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 10 OS: Windows XP SP2	Re: External HD folder is now a 0KB file once Windows asks you what program you want to use to open a folder, try running a virus scan.

11-10-2009, 10:14 AM	#4 (permalink)
ShoelessKevin Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 2 OS: XP sp2	Re: External HD folder is now a 0KB file Hello Baldy, The Vista chkdisk that I had mentioned did not fix the problem, so I kept the drive unplugged for several weeks in hopes of preventing more directories from meeting this fate. And hopefully in the meantime I would find some sort of resolution. After no solution for weeks I decided to simply reformat the drive. As all of the data I had on it was purely back-up, I did the reformat and prayed my main hard drives didn't experience a problem before I got the chance to re-back-them-up. After the reformat finished I installed the OneTouch software and everything backed up and the drives works again. I have not noticed any issues with it. In the past I have noticed a way to monitor your drive. Get the properties of the drive (in Windows File Explorer click in the main directory) and see how much space is used. Then from the same main directory select all of the folders and get the properties of them. If the space used is not identical (or very similar) the drive is starting to have problems. This would get fixed for me by doing a chkdisk, but I suspect still left something broken. After awhile it became irreparable by chkdisk and I noticed this issue. I do not believe it is a virus because I have not noticed any remotely similar issue on my main hard drives. I do everything on the main drives and only use the external drive for back-up, so I don't think it would be infected first or only infected. I do believe that the drive has some problems managing the file allocation tables, and they can become corrupted beyond repair. I would recommend reformatting your drive and eventually buying a new one when you can. I will be keeping my eye open for some good black friday deals coming up. Hopefully you have your files elsewhere and/or you can recover most of the files from the drive before reformatting. -Kevin