Sorry about the big letters in the topic title but I litterally just paniced when i turned on my machine one hour ago.
I got an error message in Win XP that G (and H: and I: for that matter)/:$Mft could not be written. Then it turns out that all files on all partitions on one of my phisical HDDs was gone! -or at least I thought so.
When I look under My Computer and check the drive usage there's no sign that anything is missing. When I try to launch programs form my desktop or Start menu i'm told that the program is not a valid Win32 program.
I cannot run an antivirus program on the drives.
When I unplugged the entire drive everything appears to be fine (the reason why i am able to post here)
I ran a search for this $Mft. and it appears to stand for Master File Table. Some sort of thing to keep track of all file entries on a drive. If this is corrupted it explains why my drives appears to be full but i cannot see anything or run programs from them.
My question is: Does anyone know what causes this problem, know how serious it is, and perhaps have suggestions for solutions? DAMN Windows XP!!!
(unhappy)Cheers!