HD is full, Properties says it's empty

[Dynamo1998]

Hello,

I had my main HD go bad last week. Our IT guy came in, took it out, said it was going bad, and said I'd need an entire system reinstall. So he installed Windows 7 (was on XP) and ran a disk repair on the bad drive. The repair ran for about 2 days, but then stalled when it was about 3/4 of the way through. So we cancelled it and rebooted.

After the reboot, in a Windows explorer window, the disk still mounts and the icon shows that there is 36.3 GB free of 149 GB. There is also the blue status bar that shows that it is about 75% full. But when I click on the HD icon and check the Properties, it says there are 0 files on it. So, it seems like my files are still on the disk, I just can't access them. In fact, during the disk repair check, I could see it saying, "3500 files processed....3620 files processed...etc."

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get my files back?

Thanks in advance...
DJ

[Alexii]

Proper diagnostics from a DR shop would be in order. Cause the drive might pack up on u any second. However if DIY is ur only way - then try logical recovery software like R-Studio, File Scavenger , Recover My Files , EASUS etc. Good luck.

[Dynamo1998]

Thanks for the advice....I've just been using the Windows disk repair utility, but it sounds like I may need something more advanced....

[Russwinters]

any kind of windows repair utility of any kind is pretty much a horrible thing to run on a suspected failing drive. A clone of the failing drive maybe, but not the original.

[SquaL]

Hi, as already suggested since drive may fail to point of beyond DIY, best you have it diagnosed. IT guy made things complicated by installing Win 7 on drive and who knows what other damage from repair program, and then there is the original problem. If you are not able to get it properly checked, you could try cloning (be very careful) then work on the clone with programs suggested.

[poehere]

You data is still there but now you have even more problems. Can you try and clone this drive to another one and from there you can try a DR program to take off your data. But before doing anything else here I would really clone this drive if your data means anything to you. Stay away from Windows repair program and scan disk on this one

[pcimage]

Poehere gives good advice.

Agree totally to clone this drive before attempting any recovery on the clone.

By clone, we mean a sector clone not ghost or some other windows s/w.

Suggest media tools pro, dd_rescue... Which are software solutions, which any decent pro would not use!

Of course you take the risk of destroying your data forever by performing DIY, so assuming the data is of no value then proceed with cloning. But if the data is worthless then go for it!!

[Dynamo1998]

Thanks to all for your helpful advice - I will let you all know what happens...