PSD files "can't be found"

[rrjberger]

There was too much space on my macbook so I dragged all my design assets and mockups into my 1 TB hard drive. I erased everything on my desktop. However, When I use the hard drive to open a design mockup psd, it doesn't open and when I drag the psd file to photoshop, it says the file can't be found. Not sure what's going on but this is so stressful. Here are some pictures below. I tried to eject and re-do my hard drive, restart my computer, but nothing is working. 

[Test Screen Name]

What happens if you start Photoshop then use Open from the File menu?

[rrjberger]

it shows up like this where the file is not even clickable. really weird 

[D Fosse]

If you can't open the file by (1) finding it in the drive's folder tree and (2) double-clicking it, it's most likely corrupt.

Not what you want to hear, but drag and drop used for file management is a bad habit. It's too unreliable, and if it goes wrong, you can't go back. The safe way is to copy-paste, and then you can delete the original when you have confirmed it's OK.

And then there's external drives, in themselves risky. Cables and connectors get jiggled all the time, they get worn out, and it's very easy to knock the connection out for a millisecond. That's enough. I've lost files that way, and, lesson learned, I never touch an external drive while transfer is in progress. I also replace cables regularly.

Three more words: backup, backup, backup.

[rrjberger]

dang...I should have known. then are these files just lost? should I forget about them and throw them out since there's no way to save these corrupted files? Any backup resources you recommend too?? 

[D Fosse]

On the faint chance that your drive is the problem, try to copy/paste the file to your desktop. If it still won't open, it's gone.

There is recovery software out there that might be worth a try. Just google it, I don't have any specific recommendations.

[rrjberger]

copy and paste the file onto the desktop still doesn't work. it's definitely gone unfortunately. but I will look into the recovery software. thank you so much!!!!! 

[Test Screen Name]

I notice this is on a WD passport disk, so far as I can see.

Does it actually work if you drag the file back onto your desktop, then open it?

[rrjberger]

unfortunately it does not. when I do, it shows up like this...

 

[rrjberger]

sorry here's a better picture

[Test Screen Name]

You may have slready done this ... but I would check out the disk with some other types of file. It might be a general problem with the disk. Could also be the disk security system locking it up. 

[rrjberger]

funny thing is recent mockups I added are completely fine, indesign files are good, jpgs, and pngs are good too. nothing wrong. it's just the psd files that are acting like this. so if it might be the disk security system locking it up, do you know a way to "unlock it" by any chance? really weird why it's only for psd files only

[D Fosse]

Generally, the chance of corruption increases with file size. It's just statistics. If a "corruption event" happens on average every x megabytes, the more megabytes the file is, the bigger the hit risk. It's just a bigger target.

PSDs are big, jpegs and PNGs small.

[jane-e]

You tagged "macOS" — if you have Time Machine enabled, see if you can restore the files from there.

Jane