[AznCompFreak]

My friend's laptop recently started getting a BSOD while booting up, so I decided to back up the data then reformat. I took out the Hitachi 60GB HDD and used it as an external, and the drive shows up in My Computer, however when I try to open it it gives me an error message saying: "(volume):\ is not accessible. The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."
Probably not a USB port problem because I've tried it on multiple computers. The device shows up on device manager claiming it runs fine. It also shows up on disk management on my XP laptop, but it doesn't list what file system it is and claims it's 0/55GB used (on my Vista desktop, disk management just never loads.)
On chkdsk however, the drive is shown to have an NTFS file system with approx 35/55GB used. I attempted a chkdsk volume:/f, but the I/O device error was still there.
My first priority is to back up the files. Any ideas on how I can do that?

[AznCompFreak]

Okay, I attemped a chkdsk volume:/r, which fixed the I/O device error. The drive now shows up in my computer fine, claiming its 33/55GB used (normal.) However, in the drive, there's only about 7GB of content, with important files from "Documents and Settings" missing. What happened? Also, how do I retrieve the files now?

[BG-0]

You sure it's showing them? Folder options/show/etc.? This is a stupid suggestion I know.

[AznCompFreak]

I don't think that's the issue. Just checking though, what should I have checked to have the files shown?

[BG-0]

Just for checking, try going on top of the window Tools/folder options/view then check "Display the contents of system folders", select "show hidden files and folders", uncheck "Hide protected operating system files(Recommended)", then all files will be showed, if possible. (I just thought Windows could have protected somehow some of the files that were on the disk). Other option is part of the data is corrupted.

[AznCompFreak]

Nope Documents and Settings still doesn't have the files. How do I recover them?

[BG-0]

I have personally never been able to recover corrupted or elsehow lost data. I don't know any tools for data recovery, someone else will propably instruct you regarding this. Of course, it is possible that the files are beyond recovery.

[AznCompFreak]

Does anyone else know how I could solve this problem?

[AznCompFreak]

Okay, it turns out the files were hidden and not available while the HDD was used as an external, but when used as an internal in the original laptop, all files showed up fine.