BleepingComputer.com: allowed indexing of external hard drive - most folders now empty

Hi everyone,

I have windows 7 (only recently upgraded from xp) on my Dell Latitude D420 laptop. I attached my external hard drive and a message appeared to ask if I wanted to allow indexing and that this would speed up searching. I very stupidly clicked ok. Now when I open the folders on my external HD, they are mostly all empty. However, the available memory space has not changed and so I have no idea what is going on. Would system restore do any good? Can anyone help the computer illiterate??

Thanks in advance,

Susie

Not sure that you are not misplacing cause/effect here.

Indexing normally involves nothing other than slowing the system down...I've never seen an instance documented where anything untoward happened as the result of using it.

Generally...when files begin to disappear...I think malware or partition problems.

No error messages onscreen?

Louis

Hi Louis,

thanks for getting back to me, you might be right. possibly it wasn't the indexing - I just happened to notice files missing after I clicked ok to indexing. No other error messages.

Cheers,

Susie

Have you recently run the chkdsk /r command on that drive?

Start/Run...type chkdsk ? /r (where ? equals drive letter for external drive) and hit Enter. If screen comes up and indicates that chkdsk /r cannot be done now...post the exact wording of the message.

Any error messages in Event Viewer...indicating a problem with the drive?

How To Use Event Viewer - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic40108.html

Louis

Hi Louis,

thanks for getting back to me again! I connected my external HD tonight and all the empty folders now have the contents back?? Very strange, I've no idea what happened but glad they are back now obviously. Thanks you very much for your help.

all the best,

Susie

Glad you resolved it, happy computing .

Louis