this is my first time posting here but im pretty good with computers.  on running a WINDOWS xp system which i built.  it has been running great untill last week.  i have two hard drives, one with windows and programs on it, the other [250gb] is reserved for audio and video that i have.  i went and tried to access some audio files in explorer but the folders they were in were gone.  there are about 800 folders, each containing different music or video.  the second half of the folders was just gone.  however, some audio files from the 'missing' directories were stored in a winamp playlist and they still played, which means the files arent gone.  i cant figure out what the problem is but IVE unplugged it untill i can fix it.  is it something with a file index? is it because i had too many folders?  any help is appreciated.Was these  mp3 audio files via.....a P2P Program......






however, some audio files from the 'missing' directories were stored in a winamp playlist and they still played, which means the files arent gone. jtaylor20



therfore your pc still has them!
some are, most are shows and concerts ive recorded via minidisc [which i dont have anymore hard copies of], and the videos are digital projects for school.

i know they are still there, but i just cant access them unless i type in the exact folder name.  but they just dont show up,  i tried moving some of the folders to a different folder, and then a few other folders disappeared.  im thinking about pluging my hdd into my sisters system and see if they show up there.  i cant lose these files, which is why im not too keen on messing around with them.It sure SOUNDS like they are there, can you find a missing one with dos & check it's attributes?
I hope winamp doesn't store playlist files in a special cache directory  
I'd be looking from dos to start with.

You might try changing the explorer view to list instead of icons, perhaps 800 big yellow folders is too much for windows little brain.  none of the icon display changes MAKE a difference.  how liable am i to lose these files do you think?

winamp doesnt cahe audio files, and when i click on file info the right location comes up, and like i said if i manually type on the folder adress it shows up.  this is really BUGGING me After the cmd prompt:C:\windows etc    type this dir/ s / c /p..it should bring up all the files on your system.....then you could use the recover   cmd......right, but if the files arent really gone will that make a difference?They are either there or they're not there.
Set windows explorer to show hidden files & folder.
Windows Explorer>Tools>Folder Options>View
then have a look with Windows Explorer and see if they are there.
We need to know if they are there on not first.or even this>http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htmnorton disk doctor patched it right up!!!!  turns out the file indexes were all screwed up, the report was very very long.  but everything seems to be ok now.  thanks for your help, guys.Thanks for the feedback.