Bizarre external hard drive issue

[cgipson1]

I googled a bit to see if I could find anything. I saw some references to bad sectors requiring a checkdisk, also some stuff about Norton. Can you post up a screenshot of what you're seeing?

Ok, I can post a screenshot later today when I get near wifi (only have internet on my iPad and unfortunately the damn thing stopped syncing to my computer...I know, I seem to have all the luck). And I also googled and saw something about norton, but I assume that's not the issue. Though I hate Norton and would love to blame them for the problem, the norton software has been on this laptop all along and have never had an issue (not to mention I refused to pay the insane renewal rate and therefore can't blame Norton software updates, since it's been expired for months.) But will post a screenshot later this afternoon...it will likely be morning for you if you are in the U.S. (it's not even 9am yet for me here).

So you let your antivirus expire? Bad idea.... you may be infected! At least get proactive... and download one of the decent free ones out there....

If your Ipad stopped syncing, find out why.. fix it (if you are computer savvy). It sounds to me like you have several issues... and they may be compounding whatever caused the missing file issue (and yes, I have seen viruses do exactly the problem you are having)

(hint: Download Malware Bytes, install it, and do a scan in safe mode! Be curious as to what you find! Then stick at least Microsoft Essentials on the system.... it is not the best, but it is FREE! http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download)

 

[Pukka312]

I googled a bit to see if I could find anything. I saw some references to bad sectors requiring a checkdisk, also some stuff about Norton. Can you post up a screenshot of what you're seeing?

Ok, I can post a screenshot later today when I get near wifi (only have internet on my iPad and unfortunately the damn thing stopped syncing to my computer...I know, I seem to have all the luck). And I also googled and saw something about norton, but I assume that's not the issue. Though I hate Norton and would love to blame them for the problem, the norton software has been on this laptop all along and have never had an issue (not to mention I refused to pay the insane renewal rate and therefore can't blame Norton software updates, since it's been expired for months.) But will post a screenshot later this afternoon...it will likely be morning for you if you are in the U.S. (it's not even 9am yet for me here).

So you let your antivirus expire? Bad idea.... you may be infected! At least get proactive... and download one of the decent free ones out there....

If your Ipad stopped syncing, find out why.. fix it (if you are computer savvy). It sounds to me like you have several issues... and they may be compounding whatever caused the missing file issue (and yes, I have seen viruses do exactly the problem you are having)

(hint: Download Malware Bytes, install it, and do a scan in safe mode! Be curious as to what you find! Then stick at least Microsoft Essentials on the system.... it is not the best, but it is FREE! Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows)

I do use malware bytes on my other computer. And honestly, this laptop I use is not connected to the Internet. In the past 6 months, it has had wifi internet access 4 times...and not that I couldn't have gotten a virus at that time, but I felt the chances were remote as the only reason I connected was to upload photos. I did consider the possibility of a virus thou when I my husband's external hard drive responded like mine.

The only reason I haven't downloaded a free virus protection software is because I have norton and norton is a pain to remove. Last time I used the norton removal software and still couldn't get an alternate virus software to run because they still found trace bits of norton. At that time I had to have the new software company remote access my computer and manually perform a seek and destroy of all norton files. Seeing as I'm in a 3rd world country with slow Internet, I have no desire to reattempt a removal of Norton on my own. I would also have to download the norton removal tool...which may take awhile (I tried an iTunes update here and it took 6hours).

If I come back to the U.S. I feel like it would be easier to just purchase the damn norton update...I hate norton. Literally it is a deal-breaker on computers when I purchase. Unfortunately this one was a gift from my dad where the software was already installed.

 

[Pukka312]

Does your husbands drive work on a different computer?

What do you mean hidden??? Did you select to hide the actual drive or folders in the software? Have you turned on the option to view hidden folders? (Click start, type "folder options", run that util and select the option to show hidden folders)

Sorry, by hidden I meant I hide my external hard drive...between my kids and husband, I just keep it tucked away so that they can't mess with it. regardless, I checked to see if I had any hidden files, and nada.

The external hard drive shows half of my 1 tb drive is full. I unfortunately cannot recall how much space my initial back up performed...I wish I paid attention to how much space I had left before this thing happened. My gut feeling is I should have less free space than that...I had even been thinking that i must be getting near my 1 TB soon. But shame on me for not checking.

when I go through the standard program retrieval I can see only files from my initial back up a year ago. I've used the built in search function as well and can't seem to find any recent folders saved.

 

[Pukka312]

Ah, I found them!!! They were not in a primary folder in retrieval mode, hence why my search failed under the main folder. Went to an alternate folder and voila! Files found.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

pro tip: format the drive for ExFAT right when you take it out of the boc.