Can't open folder (that I renamed to "...") in my USB Drive

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1

Hi all, I recently and mistakenly renamed a folder from “backup” to “…” and I did this on my phone (android), without any issues it simply let me change the name of the folder to that “…”. Usually that is not supposed to be happening. Now the name i chose made the folder disappear on my phone. It doesn’t even exist when I use the USB Drive on my phone.

So I changed setup, and put the USB drive in my PC, and I see the folder that I made is actually still there. Just not showing up on my phone when I have the USB drive connected. But when I do it on my PC it is there… I have tried countless times copy the folder or rename it, but I just get two weird errors.

  1. COPYING FOLDER:
    image
  2. RENAMING FOLDER:
    image

Steps I’ve Already Tried:

**Renaming the Folder in File Explorer:**
    Attempted to rename the folder directly in File Explorer. However, I received a "File Too Large" error, even though I was just renaming, not copying the folder.

**Using Command Prompt to Rename:**
    Opened Command Prompt with administrator privileges.
    Navigated to the USB drive and tried to rename the folder using the ren command:

ren "..." "NewFolderName"

Unfortunately, this didn’t resolve the issue.

Running CHKDSK to Repair the Drive:

Used the following command to check and repair the drive:

chkdsk D: /f /r

(replacing D: with the correct drive letter)
The scan completed but didn’t fix the issue with accessing or renaming the folder.

Attempting to Convert the Drive to NTFS:

The USB drive is FAT32, so I tried to convert it to NTFS using the following command:

convert D: /fs:ntfs

The conversion failed with errors related to multiple directories:

    Error converting directory NOMEDI~1.
    The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.

Checking for Hidden/System Files:

Enabled the viewing of hidden files in File Explorer to see if any hidden or system files were causing the issue. However, this didn’t provide any additional insights

Using Data Recovery Software:

  • Tried using Recuva and EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover files from the corrupted directory. Unfortunately, these tools couldn’t recover any additional data or fix the issue with the folder.
2

Wow!

You tried renaming and copying, can you try moving the folder to your harddrive?

Can you access the folder with a Linux system?

Can you reference the folder with a generic name, “*” rather than “…”?

3

I tried everything but reaching it on a linux system. Hows that possible the easiest way?

4

It sounds like the folder name “…” is causing issues on your Android device. Android may not be handling special characters like periods in folder names well, which is why the folder isn’t visible. On your PC, try renaming the folder using a simple name without special characters using software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard or 7-Zip. These tools can also help recover or manage files if there are persistent issues. Once renamed, reconnect the USB to your phone to see if the folder appears.

5

You can’t see the renamed folder on your phone, but it’s visible on your PC. To fix it, try renaming the folder using Command Prompt or PowerShell. Run chkdsk to fix file system errors. If that doesn’t help, use tools data recovery software of Stellar for recovery. Check the USB drive’s health, and if needed, back up your data and reformat the drive. Avoid special characters in folder names and stick to common file systems.