I have used the Wipe function a couple of times in the past without problems, but I cannot remember if I ever used it on my external hard drive (WD 500GB). I only used the wipe function to pass over three-(3) times to securely erase "Free Space" only. It was taking a long time, so I went to sleep in my bed. I awoke to check the status and I LOST YEARS OF DATA, MEMORIES and OTHER IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS! I am ENRAGED! I SELECTED FREE SPACE ONLY AND NOW EVERYTHING IS GONE! THE REMAINING FOLDERS ARE IN INACCESSIBLE DUE TO "THE PARAMETER IS INCORRECT"
I pray that there is some kind of fail safe? I checked my recycled bin and nothing is there.
Open to advice, so please assist with recommendations if you have any to provide.
I read the other postings above mine in this thread and remembered that I too used the registry cleaner, but this was before the wipe "free space" only function. I saved the registration values and I believe it was before using the registry cleaner - I blindly used the recommendation by the registry cleaner, which was "Solution = Delete". The file that I saved is titled cc_20130822_232701.reg; I guess I need to figure how to either restore my registry entries or use the sometimes "Magical/Mystical Reboot" method and hope that the data will be there.
Registry entries can be restored by just double-clicking on them and answering yes when asked it you want to merge them.
Have you tried running chkdsk on your external drive?
See this thread here
http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2009/06/25/dive-is-not-accessible-parameter-is-incorrect/
Forgive my intrusion, but I found this comment of great interest re checkdisk ...
Running the Check Disk app from the Properties menu did not work. I got another error message saying the disk is not accessible. Curiously enough running it from command line, did work.
After the initial failure how many would think to give command line a whirl?
Wipe Free Space can stress a disk, and if the disk was near failure that could've contributed. If you're not selling off your computer using Wipe Free Space on the disks isn't a necessity.