Need Urgent Expert help. Custom folders/files missing from WD External 'Elements' drive

Hi. I’m in a real jam. I had to install a new hard disk drive and reintall Windows 7 Pro 64-bit OS. The internal WD drive is working fine. Everything else seems to be working fine.

The only things I’ve done since then were to install…

– AVG Internet Security (Paid version) -latest version-.

OpenOffice.org -latest version- (so that I could gain access to my saved (Calc) program files).

– Yahoo Mail program.

However, when trying to access my Western Digital “Elements” 500GB External USB drive , I noticed that only 2 of the 4 custom folders with their contents (which I created before the new installs on my new main drive) are visible in Windows 7 Pro 64-bit “Explorer” on the external HDD. Where did they go? Why can’t I see them?

How do I regain access to and use of the 2 folders (and maybe others?) that are no longer visible via Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer!)?

I need those folders/files desperately, since they contain vital information.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Show-hidden-files

Try the link and also try searching a specific file in the search bar in win explorer.

To: trythesefirst…

Thank you for your immediate and correct reply. Just a minute or so before getting your reply, I thought of checking that issue via my older PC (from which I had copied the folders from to my new PC). Sure enough… several folders were checked as “Hidden,” so I unchecked them on both the older PC and on the external HDD. It works great now. Thank you!!!

Now, I’m once again faced with the utterly confusing process of figuring out which of the WD, Intel, and ASRock files/utilities need to be installed and/or ignored, and in which order. I know that some of them are either not necessary or are too buggy to be used. It’s a real headache. It’s been over a year, and I have forgotten everything I researched way back then. I never expected a new WD HDD to fail in less than 2 years! Other ones I’ve owned lasted as long as 13 years without one single hitch!

At 67, I’m too old for this stuff. MS should have simplified things much better after all these many years they’ve been pushing their products out to consumers. “User-Friendly” is a term that no longer applies to Microsoft.

Thanks again!!