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This might sound a little weird but i hope you can help me.

For some reason my PC's didn't close my HDD correctly. The whole drive got corrupted but windows fixed it, which is good. The problem is that windows removed the folder database for this drive so the folders doesn't work. How do i change these files to be folders?

Oliver Salzburg
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user3294128
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    What is a "folder database"? What does "folders doesn't work" mean? "Changing files to folders" doesn't really make any sense; what files / folders are you specifically talking about? What version of Windows? – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 17:46
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    Windows 8.1. I looked this up and it said that windows has a database telling the filesystem which files are folders and which files are just files. My HDD got corrupted and that database must have been to and windows couldn't bring the database back, but windows could bring the folders back. Right know i'm stuck with a lot of files named after the folders I had on the drive. – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 17:58

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The "database" description you mentioned that you read about is a bit of an over-simplification.

chkdsk will sometimes "convert" folders to files when the folder is too damaged to recover - it tries to recover as much as possible, it probably had no way of knowing it was a folder to begin with.

In any case, there is not really a direct way to recover those folders. Your main options are:

  • Restore data from a previous backup.

  • Make sure Explorer is set to show hidden files (I don't know how to do this in Windows 8.1 but in Windows 7 it's Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> Show Hidden Files / Folders) then look in the root directory of the drive for files and folders named "found.*"; chkdsk will often move the contents of corrupt folders to directories here; and then you can put the files back where they belong. If all you have is .chk files some of the utilities below may help.

  • Try TestDisk - from the comments below, the OP was able to use this tool to recover missing files (the directory structure had to be rebuilt by hand).

  • Try some of the solutions from https://superuser.com/a/42205/245945 (I have never tried these and have no experience with them):

  • Replace lost data from its original source (e.g. reinstall damaged programs, etc.)

  • Try a file recovery tool such as Recuva.

If you don't have a backup, Recuva is your best bet of getting missing files back, although you may have to do some work to recreate the directory structure by hand. If you are going to try Recuva, then minimize the amount of data you write to the drive, starting immediately, because everything you write reduces the chance of being able to recover lost files.

Also how you recover data depends on the folders / files that were damaged. For example, if the lost data was program data from an installed program, you can reinstall it. If it was system data for Windows, perhaps running sfc /scannow at a command prompt can repair it. If it was downloaded data, redownload it.

In the future, to prevent this:

  • Back up important data to a separate drive regularly. Programs such as Acronis True Image are great for this and well worth the reasonable price, and invest in an external drive like a WD MyBook or a networked drive such as the Seagate Central. There are many other options as well, depending on your level of knowledge and amount of motivation (I have a 4TB Seagate Central, it's compact and easy to set up, just plug it into your router and it will show up in Windows' network places).

  • Always shut down your computer properly. If power failures are a major problem where you live consider investing in a nice UPS, preferably one with the ability to communicate the power loss to your computer and allow it to shut itself down automatically.

  • Basically everything on this list, which you really should take a moment to read (note that backups are #1).

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Jason C
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  • I have tried Recuva but it couldn't only find a few folders. This is my second HDD I have a SSD for my windows install. You say I can build up the folder system manually. How do I do that? – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 18:18
  • @user3294128 When I said "manually" I meant *manually*, e.g. guess where things need to go, create new folders in the correct locations and give them the appropriate names, etc. Generally difficult but sometimes possible if you know where your data originally came from. If you've done all you can with Recuva, and you don't have any backups, unfortunately you may be stuck (you just learned "always make backups" the hard way :) ). Focusing on specific issues: Is your system having any specific problems now? Aside from e.g. personal data loss, are programs or Windows reporting any errors? – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:21
  • Windows works fine. It's just my HDD that this happened to. The thing is I have some files that have the same names as the folders i had on the drive. Isn't it possible to recreate these folders using the files I have? – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 18:23
  • @user3294128 Are you sure the issue was that the drive was unmounted properly? Or did it actually crash? You may want to take a look at the drive's SMART data with e.g. [Crystal Disk Info](http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html) and look for anything suspicious. If you suspect the drive is failing, or about to fail, you will want to back up immediately and replace as soon as possible. – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:27
  • @user3294128 No it's not possible, as I explained. Essentially, the folder was so damaged that the only thing chkdsk could really recover was its name, it probably couldn't even tell that it used to be a folder. – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:27
  • The drive is one month old. I don't think there is a problem with it. This is what the folder looks like https://imgur.com/adUFQ1Q – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 18:29
  • @user3294128 No it's still not possible, no matter how many screenshots you take :). However I have updated my answer with a list of some additional utilities from http://superuser.com/questions/42202/how-to-recover-folder-converted-to-file-by-check-disk which you could try. Curious to know if they work or not; if you give them a shot post back with the outcome. – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:32
  • By the way, are you using NTFS or ReFS? – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:34
  • @user3294128 Oh, also, make sure Explorer is set to show hidden files. It's very possible `chkdsk` moved the original contents of those directories to folders with names like `found.001` and such, in the root folder of the drive. – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:35
  • They all use CHK files which I don't have – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 18:37
  • @user3294128 The CHK utilities I posted above can recover data from CHK files. Good luck! – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:39
  • @user3294128 By the way you didn't do any "performance" tweaks like disabling write cache buffer flushing on that drive or anything, did you? – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:42
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    I haven't done that – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 18:46
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    I found a solution. The program TestDisk works, http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download. It can't recover folders so I have to sort the whole thing but it's worth it. Btw now i have learned to take backups I just have to buy a new HDD so i can put my backups there. Thx for helping :D – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 18:56
  • @user3294128 Glad it worked out, and thanks for posting back with that! – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 18:56
  • Could you please put the link in your post so others can see it? – user3294128 Jun 28 '14 at 18:59
  • @user3294128 Yup, already did. – Jason C Jun 28 '14 at 19:00