HELP! the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable

[Skinkfoot]

So I hooked up my external hard drive I was using as a backup from my old comp to new one. It's been working fine for the last week or so then today when I tried to open it to xfer the files over to my computer it gave me this message "the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable." Is there away to recover all of my pictures and music from this drive without purchasing a program? Any help appreciated ty.

[chazus]

You could try using Recuva, its free.

[NicolaPugh]

It seems that there is something wrong with the file system and directory. Possibly, the MFT is kind of damaged. the ligh side is that the problem is logical and the hard drive is fine. Thus you can fix the error with certain tools.
If you have all files backed up, then you can perform chkdsk to check and repair file system errors.
ontinue to type chkdsk /f X: and press Enter. X is the drive letter of the problem partition;
Type Y and hit Enter and restart computer to resume disk check if you get the message "Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is ...system restarts? "
this command line works on many such errors, after which all files will become accessible.
eassos.com/how-to/The-file-or-directory-is-corrupted-and-unreadable.php