Windows 10: Files Seem to Mysteriously Disappear from External Drive

My external 1TB hard drive was pretty full when I noticed it started being kinda slow. I then start to realize that a growing number of folders were inaccessible. I click on it, Windows Explorer "doesn't respond" for about 30 seconds or so, and then it just doesn't do anything as if I never clicked on it at all. I'm able to look at the properties and it says 0 bytes even though my drive does have files in the folder. Or at least, it did.I haven't had a lot of luck with this. It's not all the files, just some files. I have removed all the good files from my drive to another one since it does se

:)

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

External Hard Drive

Hi,

Just to verify, did you mean, your back up files used to be on your external hard drive, but now it's no longer there? If this is true, kindly provide more answers to the questions below, so we can further assess the issue:

• When did the files start to disappear?
• What are the troubleshooting steps you have done so far?
• Did you make nay changes on the settings of your PC or hard drive prior to this issue?
• Are you getting any error messages when trying to plug in your external drive?
• Does your external drive shows that the space is consumed?

Please advise. We'll keep an eye out to your response.

 

External drive

Hi Richard,

There are several factors that can cause your external drive to not read DVDs even though the system is recognizing the device. This could be caused by a driver that needs to updated or corrupted files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly answer the questions
below:

• Just to confirm, the device that is not working properly is a external DVD optical drive?
• Were there any recent changes or updates installed on your computer?
• Have you tried to plug the external drive to a different port on your computer?

As a initial recommendation, we suggest that your run the built in troubleshooter in Windows 10. Kindly refer to the steps below:

• Type “Troubleshooting” in the Search bar and press Enter.
• Click on “View All” in the top left corner.
• This will display the list of troubleshooters which are built-in in the computer. You can click on
  Hardware and Devices from the list and you can run the troubleshooter.

This will check for common errors that affect hardware on your computer and attempts to correct them.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.