Why suddenly DOS-type hexadecimal file names?
- by Marvin Nicholson
One of the fairly recent folders on my XP SATA data drive suddenly shows DOS-type hexadecimal file names (i.e., eight characters with three-character extensions) I deleted them and now my Recycle bin shows them with a tilde (i.e., 194ABE~1.JPG). The images are all valid but the file names I assigned are gone. (The 2-terabyte SATA data drive has no OS, if that matters.)
The last time this happened on an IDE drive, I was able to back up all the remaining files just before the drive died. Am I facing the same scenario now with my 2-terabyte SATA data drive? It is only a couple of years old. Should I quickly buy another one and back up 20 years of files to it before my current drive dies?