Unable to determine file system type

[Ironhawk]

A few days ago, my PC's primary hard drive started running slow.  After a few tests, I thought I had just a few bad sectors.  Then the drive started failing to boot.  Now I have a new drive with a fresh install of Windows 7, and the old drive in an USB enclosure.  Windows explorer will show the folders within the root directory, but almost all of the files are gone.

 

A friend recommended Recuva, but so far no luck.  It stops almost immediately after starting and gives the following error message, "Failed to scan the following drives: E:: Unable to determine file system type".

 

Can anything be done at this point, or am I completely out of luck?  Thanks, either way.

 

All the Best,

Scott

[Brig]

Sorry, no answers from me. I'm just posting to say I have exactly the same problem, only with an external drive. The folders are there, but almost all the files seem to be gone. These are family photos. Really worried about this.

[Brig]

Here's an update: I had Recuva do a deep scan and when it finished (hours later), it had "found" more than 58,000 files. Excitedly, I went through the list of files that were identified as in "excellent" (recoverable) condition (unfortunately most were listed as in "poor" condition); I marked the ones I wanted, which were not all of my photos (not nearly), but at least it was something, and hit the recover button. I'd selected well over 100 files, but Recuva reported that it was unable to find all but six (and those six were useless). It found them in the deep scan and listed them, but was unable to find them for recovery. That was very disappointing. I'm going to find a professional to examine my drive.