All Folders & Files on my external drive cannot be read and accessed ?!

[jadegirl]

Hello,

I have been using my external hard drive for around 6 months now and has been working with no problems.

I went into it recently to work on some files and ALL my folders and files are in gobble-dee-gook language. I have attached a screen-shot of the files & folders so you can see for yourself.

I have plugged it into other computers and laptops and it is showing the same weird language.

I cannot open any of the files or folders.

I am running Windows XP SP2

My External HDD details are:
Memorex 160GB
Model # ETD160GW

Has my external-hard drive crashed? I have a lot of work on there that is important. Is there anyway I can get it back?

Thank you in advance.

[Raiz]

See following threads if they helps you:

Can't access external fat32 drive.
Can't access external hard disk
http://forums.techarena.in/server-de...nt/1145072.htm
External hard drive not recognized by Windows Vista

[Rudra.J]

Well there has been a virus infection which has resulted in the data corruption or your hard disk was removed without safety measures which did the data corruption. I don't think there's a way to recover the data from the disk, but try some data recovery softwares...

[jadegirl]

Thank you to both replies - will have a go at some data recovery prog's, if successful, will post on here for other silly people who forgot to back-up on a regular basis :-)