I have attempted to move everything on my external hard drive into a folder on that drive. Now all the files are corrupted. I have tried chkdsk /f without a result. Anyone have ideas I can try? I have 250GB of data I can't afford to lose. HELP!!!

WD My Book Essential 2.0 500GB

System Restore
--------------------------------------------------
You might try a System Restore to a point prior to your problem:

start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore

Will it restore what happened on an external hard drive?

By default Windows monitors all drives. As noted in your other thread this is System Volume Info.

You can verify by right clicking My Computer then Properties then System Restore.

You will probably see that all drives are being monitored unless you have turned them off.

I have tried system restore, but my files still seem to be corrupted. Do you have any other ideas?

There are software options depending on the corruption.

This one has a free version:

http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file...htm?language=1

Most others cost @ $70+ USD: (you can scan for free but recovery costs):

http://www.google.com/search?source=...overy+software

It's not so much that they are gone, it's that I can't copy them anywhere, when I try to open them, I get "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item". When I try to copy a folder, I get a similar error. Some files still work while others don't. I need to get these files working, I have thousands of pictures and videos I cannot lose.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

Thank you so much for that link. I had suspected that file permissions were a problem, but I could not find out how to enable the security tab to change permissions. You have saved me years of work, files, pictures, video, etc. You were a huge help.

No problem. Glad it worked!

Let us know if we can help further in the future.