A few days ago, I used my external hard disk (a 2TB Seagate) in order to transfer some files on Windows Vista. During that, I noticed some malfunctions on my system (it was running too slow, Windows Explorer crashed).

When Explorer crashed, file transportation stopped. I was afraid, but I tried to access my files and it seemed to be working. I tried to open a movie (from the external disk) but it couldn't load. I thought of restarting, but this took sooo long... So I unplugged the hard disk and at that time it managed to shut down. I logged on to Windows Vista but the hard disk couldn't be mounted. I plugged it but nothing happened. I unplugged it and I heard this specific sound that notifies that something has been unplugged.

I thought of logging to Ubuntu 10.04 and see what I can do. I plugged the hard disk, but I couldn't see it. I opened GParted but I couldn't see it either. I tried with Disc Utility and there it was! I tried to mount it but a got an error message stating that an error occured with Windows, there is a file (0,0) that has problem or something like that. It suggested to log into Windows and run chkdsk /f and reboot twice.

The thing is that I am somehow afraid to do so because I don't really know the impact on that. Plus I don't trust doing even a check on Vista...

I finally risked it and I typed

chkdsk/f

on a cmd. I cannot, however, actually run it because I don't have admin privileges. So from search I found chkdsk, I right cliked and selected “run as administrator”. It run but I got a message like NTFS file system. It should check at the coming restart.

At that point I am mistaken. I thought that f meant F but this is not the case here...

Does anyone have any suggestions and advice?