Problems with external hard drive (file system?)

Resolved question

by BROMETHIOUS - 3/9/12 12:06 PM

I have a 250 gig Western Digital external hard drive. I've never had any problems with it until several months ago when it started behaving poorly. In general it seems like it is having issues with file structure, even just navigating through the folders or checking their properties is tediously slow.

I tried copying files and folders over to another disk with limited success. It seems like it is somewhat faster when I copy the files (not folders) but even that is slow and inconsistent. When I try to copy the folder that contains the same files, I sometimes get the error "Cannot copy file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." If I don't get that error, it does copy but it takes significantly longer.

The drive does not appear to be fragmented and I couldn't find any malware on it but there are a few things on the root directory which have caught my attention:

1. Folder named 42fa008b44b008f3043c53 (when I try to open or delete, it says "Access is denied")

2. There is one hidden folder named "msdownld.tmp". This folder is empty but I cannot delete. It looks like it is an artifact from installing IE 6 in the past.

3. There are 4 hidden files on the root directory: "AUTORUN.INF", "ffastun.ffa", "ffastun.ffl", ffastun.ffo"

Also, a while ago I did try out Linux with Ubuntu and I'm wondering if in the process of accessing this drive, it somehow changed the file structure or installed other files to allow navigation.

Can someone please help me with this, I contacted WD but their solution was to send it to a third party recovery service. I feel pretty leary about putting my family photos, music, and videos in the hands of someone who doesn't value them as I do.

Thanks!

Joshua