Windows 10: Windows 10 deleted files off an external hard drive

Hello. I recently purchased a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 and have been moving files and programs from my Windows 7 Vaio to the new pc via an external hard drive. Up until today I've had no problem with Windows 10 recognizing and accessing folders on the hard drive. Yesterday I moved 2 GB worth of files and programs from my Windows 7 pc into new folders on my external hard drive, when I connected my hard drive to the Windows 10 pc and clicked on one of the folders I wanted to transfer, I received a pop-up informing me that something to the effect of the folder I'm trying to access is no longer at this location and suddenly the folder disappeared. I hovered my cursor over the other folders I wanted to transfer and pop-ups claimed the folders were empty which, of course, they were not. After opening and closing an older folder to check if my files were still available, - which they were - I immediately noticed that all the newly created folders were deleted. Rather than copy and paste, I foolishly cut and pasted those files off of my older pc and into the hard drive. I am now running easeus Recovery program and so far it's only located a handful of the deleted files.


Does anyone know why Windows 10 deleted my folders and how I might recover them?


I Thank you for your time.

:)

 

CANNOT DELETE A CORRUPTED FILE ON MY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ON WINDOWS 10

Hi Leenus,

Hard drive and other external memory storage can be corrupted on account of bad sectors which are no longer accessible or writable due to permanent damage. Your device or hard drive could also be infected by some type of malware. These are some of the possible
causes why you are experiencing the error "ERROR 0x80070570: The file or directory is corrupted or unreadable". To address this concern, we suggest performing the following troubleshooting methods:

Method 1

Check and repair disk errors or corrupted file system. This process can fix "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable" error caused by bad sectors, virus infection or file system corruption. To do so, follow these steps:

• Back up all of the files on the hard drive (except for the corrupted file).
• Using Search, type CMD.
• From the search results, right-click on Command Prompt and then choose Run as administrator.
• On the Command Prompt window, type chkdsk /f h: (h stands for your hard drive) and then hit the Enter key.
• Delete the corrupted file and check if you'll experience the same error.

Method 2

Format the hard drive. You can manually format the hard drive to permanently remove "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable" error. These are the steps on how to format an external drive:

• Plug the hard drive into your computer.
• Back up all of the files on the hard drive (except for the corrupted file).
• Open File Explorer and then click This PC.
• Click the external hard drive's name, click on Manage tab and then click on Format.
  
• Click Start and then click OK.

Keep us updated with the result.

 

CANNOT DELETE A CORRUPTED FILE ON MY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ON WINDOWS 10

I had the very same problem and this worked perfectly!!!

 

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.