Can an I/O device error effect one folder?

I have an external drive that is working fine, but I have one folder full of jpg's that up until a couple of days ago I could browse it and its sub-folders and open the pictures without any problems.

I now get the error message:

K:\Pictures 2007\Mountains is not accessible

The request could not be performed because of an I/O error.

I know the name of the sub-folder is not relevant, but I just wanted to show that I can get in to the belly of teh K: drive with no errors.

All other pictures in the "Pictures 2007" folder open just fine, it is just this one folder.

The drive is a HP Personal Media Drive. I have tried reseating it, I have tried using it with a different usb connection and it always gives me the error message.

All comments and advice welcome.

i/o errors can certainly effect one file or folder. it sounds like this one needs a health check.

backup anything important on that drive

click start then run
then type

chkdsk /r /f /x z:

where z is the drive letter.
and let it do the check, hopefully it will find a fix the error, however if it doesnt there are a few other things we can try.

note, if the disk is large and does have errors the checkdisk can take a few hours.

Charlybdis, I salute you. That worked an absolute treat.

Many thanks.