Madam

Agreed that would be helpful. Had I known that I would never had hit "cancel". Appreciate this information. It is a bit too advanced for me. But I've went to the sites copied and printed the data and will take my computer and hard drive in for repair. Your comment about the Ext Hard Drive showing RAW is correct. When you click properties it comes up as Type: Local Disk File System: RAW Capacity 0 Bytes Last night I ran a Avira Anti virus scan. I came up with 2 errors and 190 warnings. [ Could this be the result of Wipe Free Space being ran on the C drive? because that procedure WAS completed. I only hit cancel on the N drive WPF. I have NO idea why I am getting these warnings and errors. Avira detected no Infections or viruses. Malware Bytes detected no maleware. So I am lost as to WTF is going on with my computer and how to correct it. Thank you for your advice on the Recovery Console. I reformatted my computer in 2007 and that was a mess. I don't want to do that again.

I ran Malware Bytes the day I discovered the odd empty files and gibberish. It came up with no infection. But a full scan that used to take just 4 hours took over 12 hours because the 320 GB HD is FULL. And it got "full" after using Wipe Free Space. I don't know how the hell that happened because before that I only had 19 gb's of stuff on it. For shits and giggles I ran a "quick scan" with Malwarebytes just now. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46 www.malwarebytes.org Database version: 4276 Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702 7/5/2010 3:11:25 AM mbam-log-2010-07-05 (03-11-25).txt Scan type: Quick scan Objects scanned: 129410 Time elapsed: 20 minute(s), 55 second(s) Memory Processes Infected: 0 Memory Modules Infected: 0 Registry Keys Infected: 0 Registry Values Infected: 0 Registry Data Items Infected: 0 Folders Infected: 0 Files Infected: 0 Memory Processes Infected: (No malicious items detected) Memory Modules Infected: (No malicious items detected) Registry Keys Infected: (No malicious items detected) Registry Values Infected: (No malicious items detected) Registry Data Items Infected: (No malicious items detected) Folders Infected: (No malicious items detected) Files Infected: (No malicious items detected)

I will copy Avira on it now. What is odd about the redirect is that Warning is in English (see complete copied warning above) but when it says click "here" for more information and provides links, those sites are in a foreign language German maybe? And I am American. ::shrugs:: I will do an inquiry with Avira.

That is so odd. I just did it again after reading your note. I get all the way to the site that allows me to choose the piriform site to download or the Hippo site. I choose Piriform and it looks like it will start to download and then POW a redirect to the warning. http://download.piriform.com/rcsetup137.exe I am using Avira AntiVir premium

Just an FYI to the site manager. When I click the link to download recuva my Anti Virus redirects me to this Warning: Warning In order not to compromise your security, this page will not be accessed The requested URL was identified as a potentially harmful website. Further information as to why this page was blocked can be found here. http://www.avira.com/de/support/fraud.html A description of how you can unlock for this page you can find http://www.avira.com/de/support/kbdetails.php?id=420 here. Requested URL: http://download.piriform.com/rcsetup137.exe Category/categories: Malware Perhaps, Piriform should contact Avira to argue or dispute that they are supplying Malware, phishing, or that they are an attack site.

Well, the files with the gibberish weren't files I had deleted. They were albums of music that I recently placed on the hard drive. Even though I can no longer open the drive? Remember when I click on the drive I get the message "The Disk In Drive N is Not Formatted Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I apologize for that. I ran WFS once and thought things were fine. Two days later I went to get some data for a friend. I was creating a data disc when I discovered albums files that were empty. And some filled with gibberish. I was running the WFS a second time to "clear up" these files left behind by WFS the 1st time when I hit cancel and the system frozen now locking my drive and advising me I need to reformat it. It won't allow me to open the drive at all. It asks me to reformat and then advises me if I do I will lose ALL the data. I figure when I canceled the WFS and it froze and I aborted it I corrupted the drive or a partition within in it. I just want to be able to retrieve some of the data on the HD before reformatting and/or cleaning it to use it again. So you think Recuva will do the trick? Because the other post on this forum under Wipe Free Space says Recuva won't retrieve/recover any file wiped by WFS.

Not tech savvy noob here, who apparently just trashed her own External Hard drive. Well according to <a href="http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=28649">THIS</a> I f**ked it up major. I wish I had read these forums before using Ccleaner. My mistake was thinking Wipe Free Space was cleaning up things to make "space". But now I find out it is used to clear off an external that you wish to dispose of or sell. So no one can see what you've had on your HD. I've done the wipe free space once before and didn't lose any data. This time I messed up. I did it the other night. And yesterday when I went to put some things on a data disc for a friend I noticed some files were empty. Other files were filled with stuff (high gb's of gibberish) that couldn't be deleted. So I thought I'd run Wipe Free Space again and maybe it would clean up the empty files and gibberish. And it was working. But then at 8% I thought. Crikey this will take all night. I hit cancel. The system FROZE and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even get a task panel to show up by hitting control, alt, delete. So I pushed the power button on the CPU and restarted the computer and now I can't open the N drive (the external at all) Western Digital 320mb external hard drive Message when you click on the drive? The Disk In Drive N is not formatted. Do you wish to format it now? Yes, or No When you click Yes it says Format Local Disc N Capacity 298 gbs File System: NTFS Allocation Unit Size? Default Allocation side is selected bu there are other choices) 512bytes 1024 bytes 2048 bytes 4096 bytes Volume Label (empty nothing written there) Format Options (neither of the below are checked) Quick Format Enable Compression When you click Start a warning appears stating you will lose data Formatting will erase ALL data on this disk. To format the disc click ok. To quit click cancel. How to I save the data which was on this external hard drive. It was filed with my digital photographs, music, concert videos and more. I'd really like to get something back as non of it can be replaced. Any suggestions?