BleepingComputer.com: Old Laptop's Hard Drive is Missing Files...(like gigs)

I just got around to trying to extract stuff from a laptop I had in college that had died, and a lot of what was on there is missing.
I was told back in 2006 that the processor had fried and there was no use in paying for it to be fixed. Since then, I've learned some things and I just recently remembered that the hard drive sitting in that old computer had some stuff that I would like to pull off and put on the laptop I bought to replace it.

I pulled out the hard drive, got a usb converter kit, hooked up the 2.5" IDE connector, and XP picked up the disk just like it would a jumpdrive.
It was like a reunion, getting to see all the old folders and programs I had put on there...Anyway, I pulled off a couple things that I wanted from the Program Files area, but when I went to my personal folder (I usually set up a "Jai's Stuff" folder on my desktop, which I put songs, vids, pics, homework, downloads, etc...in), only about a third of the stuff was there.

I went through the rest of the stuff on the disk, and even the recently opened documents, showed some of the stuff that used to be in the "Documents and Settings\Jai Rathod\Desktop\Jai's Stuff\" folder, but is no longer there. Does anyone know of a way to possibly repair partitions of an old hard drive or something like that, that may reveal these files and folders?

Thanks,
J

jair24611, on Oct 13 2010, 03:06 PM, said:

Hi J and welcome to Bleepingcomputer.

I would like to think you are looking at the desktop short-cut icon, which will no longer work since you are NOT booted to this hard drive where the short-cut would work correctly.

You need to look under users

Then Jai.

Then your documents folder, then you will find your files in your folder.

Going through the desktop icon when it is a slave drive like this won't work.

If I have lost you here please let me know and I will direct you there with instructions.

Bruce.

This post has been edited by MrBruce1959: 13 October 2010 - 02:47 PM

Hi,

If you think the disk needs repairing you could try the following.

Click Start, Run
Type Cmd and press enter - this should open a Command Prompt box
Type chkdsk E: /R /F - where E: is the logical drive letter for your old disk

Be aware that this will take a long time to complete - I have had it go anywhere from 2-12 hours. I suggest starting it and letting it run overnight. If come morning it seems like it's hung, go ahead and stop the process.

Thanks,
Todd

Thanks for the welcome.

I did go through the entire path to where the files should have been stored. (what would normally be c:/docs & settings/users/jai rathod/desktop/jai's stuff/...
The files are not there either; they are actually gone. I searched the whole disk for some of the files that I knew to be on the disk, and it could not find them.

I also tried the chkdsk in cmd prompt, it said there were not files in any bad sections and no errors of any kind, so now I'm not sure where to go.

Thanks for your feedback guys.

Jai I am looking at your path and it mentions your desktop.

Did you save this folder in question on the desk top?

Or when your hard drive was once bootable did you have a shortcut to the folder on your desktop?

Bruce.

The file itself was saved to the folder located on the desktop, not just the shortcut.