Folder Disappeared from External Hard Drive? Fixed!

Why do files/folders disappear from external hard drive?

External hard drives bring great convenience for users to store and transfer data. However, data loss may be an unavoidable situation for most people.

When there are files disappear from external hard drive in Windows 10, don’t write new data to your device if you want to recover missing folders with a higher success rate. Because any written performance could overwrite these missing folders.

In addition, you should figure out different reasons why hard drive files disappear.

How to fix the folder disappeared from external hard drive

There are many ways to recover disappeared files from external hard drive, here are 5 different ways provided, you can choose one that works best for you.

▶ Method 1. Recover the deleted/lost folders with data recovery software

MyRecover is a reliable and user-friendly Windows data recovery software to recover external hard drive missing files, which can recover your precious data in Windows 11/10/8/7 with a high recovery rate.

Step 1. Scan the external hard drive.

Install and run MyRecover on your Windows >hover the mouse over your connected external HDD> click Scan.

Step 2. Find target folders.

After Scanning, MyRecover automatically runs Quick Scan and Deep Scan to detect all the retrievable files on your chosen external hard drive.

During scanning, you can filter and preview your desired files quickly according to Filename, Document Type, Path, Size, Date, etc.

• Name: Enter the relevant filename of your needed files to quickly locate them.
• Date modified: Set the date (today, yesterday, last 7/30 days, etc.)
• Size: Set the file size (<128KB, 128KB~1MB, 1MB~512MB, etc.)

Step 3. Recover folders.

Under the Deleted Files/Recycle Bin/Other Missing Files folder, select the files you intend to retrieve > click Recover x files.

▶ Method 2. Unhide the hidden folders from external hard drive

If your files/folders are hidden, you need to unhide them using Windows File Explorer. Let’s show how it works.

Step 1. Press “Windows + E” to open “Windows File Explorer”. Then click your external hard drive > “View” > “Options”.

Step 2. Under the View tab, click the “Show hidden files, folder, and drives” option. Then click “Apply” > “OK”.

▶ Method 3. Fix file system errors by checking the external hard drive

The corrupted file system could prevent you from viewing files/folders on the external hard drive. If you want to reappear your missing folders, please fix file system errors by checking the external hard drive.

Step 1. Connect the external hard disk to your PC. Then click “This PC” > right-click on your connected external hard drive > “Properties”.

Step 2. Under the Tools tab, click “check” to start the error checking process.

Step 3. Click “Automatically fix file system errors” > “Start”. After the process, you can open Windows File Explorer again to check whether these folders are visible to you or not.

▶ Method 4. Change Registry value to recover folders

If you fail to set the folder attribute, the virus infection may have disabled your ability to change folder settings by attacking the registry. Please follow these steps to change settings in “Registry.”

Step 1. Press “Windows + R” to open and type “regedit” in the Run command window. Then click “OK” or hit “Enter”.

Step 2. Go to this route: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL

Step 3. Confirm whether the “CheckedValue” is “1”. If not, right-click on it and hit “Delete”. Then right-click on the blank space, and click “New” > “DWORD (32-bit) Value”. After that, set the value data as “1”.

▶ Method 5. Recover the deleted/lost folders from external hard drive using WFR

Your folders have likely been deleted from the external hard disk if none of the above methods help you recover missing folders. So how to fix the issue of files missing from external hard drive?

At the moment, you can utilize Windows File Recovery to recover the lost files from the internal and external hard drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, and other electronic devices. Please get an overview of its merits and demerits below.

Step 1. Check the file system of your external hard disk: Connect it to your computer, and click “This PC” > right-click on it > “Properties”.

Step 2. Select a recommended mode according to the file system of your external hard disk and data loss circumstances.

File system	Circumstances	Recommended mode
NTFS	Deleted recently	Regular
NTFS	Deleted a while ago	Extensive
NTFS	After formatting a disk	Extensive
NTFS	A corrupted disk	Extensive
FAT and exFAT	Any	Extensive

Step 3. Choose your needed switches from the following form.

Switches	Definition	Supported mode(s)
/n	Filter the scan range: scans for a specific file with its file name/path/type, etc.	All
/y:	Recover specific extension groups.	Signature
/k	Recovers system files.	NTFS Segment​​​​​
/u	Recovers undeleted files, for example, from the Recycle Bin.	NTFS Segment

Step 4. Download Windows File Recovery from the Microsoft Store by clicking the “Get” button. Then install and “Open” it on the computer.

Step 5. Fill your selected mode and switches in the basic command format: winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]

Let’s perform how to restore the recently deleted folder from the external hard drive (E drive) to the destination drive (D drive). Then you can copy the adjusted command line “winfr E: D: /regular /n *.ZIP” in the command prompt window.

Step 6. Press “y” to go on. After recovery, you can open the destination drive to locate your retrieved folders. If you need to stop the recovery process, press the “Ctrl + C” keys.

Bonus tip - Prevent external hard drive data loss  

This detailed tutorial guides you to fix the issue of folder disappeared from external hard drive with five methods. After solving this problem, some users raise questions such as “is there any way for external hard drive data loss prevention?” It turns out there is.

To prevent data loss in the future, we’d like to introduce freeware-AOMEI Backupper to you. This free backup software for Windows could help you create a “File Backup,” “Disk Backup,” “Partition Backup,” and “System Backup.” Let’s take the file backup as an example.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Backupper on your PC. Then connect your external hard disk to the computer.

Step 2. Click “Backup” > “File Backup”.

Step 3. Click “Add folder” or “Add file” > “This PC” > “Devices and drives” to add files or folders. Then click the “Start Backup” button.

Step 4. Click “Finish” to exit the window.

Conclusion

Realizing that your valuable data is lost on an external hard drive is frustrating. Fortunately, this article provides some effective ways to recover files or folders that have disappeared from an external hard disk. You can use MyRecover to scan and recover files from external hard disk. In addition, you can also utilize the built-in features of Windows to try some other operations.