Folders disappeared from my hard drive

[fastrod]

I am using windows xp I have connected a secondary hard drive via USB of 300gb which having two drive now the problem is several folders have disappeared from this usb drive. But in hard drive properties space has been not free compare to previous time so the data must be on hard drive so please tell me how can i get back data and why this happen ?
thank you.

[Lillebror]

This can be due to several user work on single login there might be chance some one by mistakenly put that folders in system hidden files so that its unable to view so just check this to solve problem

[MrChris-]

this problem can be due to virus check here Contents of My Documents folder disappeared!. so just scan your computer with proper anti virus also try to scan online in case of back up data you can use third party application i think nero can help you to burn data.

[SalVatore]

You can try freeware data recovery programs, with this you can successfully recover data

• Recovery of lost data
• Download Windows Data Recovery Software
• PC Inspector
• Restoration

Restoration, has another function that makes it almost impossible to restore all deleted files.
You can use it after deletion of confidential documents, embarrassing files and so on.After you run the program, please check the files.You can probably restore it correctly if the drive has enough free space and if it's just after deletion.If you restore a folder, there is no guarantee that all files or
folders which used to belong to the folder will be in it.If you can't find them in it, please search and restore them one by one.If you still can't find them, it's impossible to restore them.It will be almost impossible to restore any deleted files if you run the complete deletion function.