What files are included in the file backup?

Cannot View Files on External Drive After Backup and Restore (Urgent)?

• i need help urgent, i have a samsung windows 7. .. it flags me that i should backup my computer.. so i did... and i follow through all this step.. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/ it was pretty straight forward... . as it says it is recommended that i should save the backup into the external drive so i did.. now my problem is first of.. i have plenty of files on that external drive.. now after backup complete... when i open the external it only shows me the backup... and when i go to its properties... it indicates that my files are still there.(As i read the capacity - used space and free space.) the backup only used up 21.gb.. and my files is around 1.5tb used space.. it still reads that i have free 250gb left.. so this indicates that my files are still there.,.. however i cannot see them or i cannot go the my folders. it contains documents etc... i even check show hidden files on folder options but still how do i get a hold of my files???... the only thing showing inside the external drive is the backup file.. please help urgent..

• Answer:

  Strange... Try the disk on another computer, see if you can see the files there. I'm assuming the drive was formatted NTFS, else the backup would have failed with FAT32. Was the drive properly dismounted after the backup? (assuming it is a USB drive?) If you cannot read the disk from any other computer (files do not show up), you may have to try and run a recovery program like "RECUVA". It is free for download, and generally safe in recovering lost directory structures. The less you use that drive now, the better the odds on recovering most of the files. Run RECUVA as a last resort, if nothing else works....