Hi guys
This ones got me stumped.

I'm running XP Home on a Vaio laptop.  I've got a 40GB Hitachi Hard Disk (NTFS) in a generic usb 2.0 enclosure.

When I move files between folders on the disk they become un-accessable.  I can copy to the disk (so there's no problem with the disk writing), I can access things and save them.  But as soon as I move files or folders in WinExplorer they become corrupt, can't open (access denied) or DELETE.

Edit: I can delete using command prompt or shift-del in WinExplorer.  Still can't read.

CHDISK doesn't report any errors and the Disk Management reports drive as healthy. I believe there is some problem with writing to the Table of Contents and therefore don't want to DEFRAG disk yet.

Now I've backed up what I can to another disk but have lost about 2 GB of stuff that I would like to KEEP. Anyone got any ideas about how to recover these files (the info should still be there), recommendations about utilities that might help, futher test I can run or worse case senario if formating will make the entire drive usable and SAFE again.

Go figure, and if anyone can figure it out better than me I would be eternally gratefulAre you using software for the external HDD that allows you to synchronize and encrypt?