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When I try opening a text document and a couple of folders with documents and photos I get the message "The item 'clvois.scr' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly."
Others appear as ".ink" files and my computes won't open those either.
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Sorry but file association is considered a basic Windows setup or skill. I'll ask in case you forgot to tell us about what app you associated the file with.
Bob
The problem I'm having is with a document that used to be .txt and two folders that won't open at all. When I look that their properties it says they're now shortcuts with the target "clvois,scr", which won't open. Another two folders won't open because they're now "ink" files and my computer says it can't run that app.
I've tried running several malware and virus programs and checking the hard drive with the windows tools, but no luck and nothing detected.
The original problem I had was that the hard drive itself wouldn't open until I ran chkdsk if that means anything.
If it's not a text file (.txt) then nothing is wrong. This is expected behavior. Same for shortcuts.
Shortcuts on externals are troublesome. I suggest you look at where this shortcut lead to and go direct instead of using the shortcut.
-> It's a shame that you didn't tell about the original problem up front. My answer may be off a little but associations, shortcuts and such are basic windows settings and skill. HOWEVER it now looks like the drive suffered some corruption which is typical for many externals.
CHKDSK is OK but if you want your files to stay around you keep copies somewhere else.
Bob
The issue is that is should be a text file, not a shortcut, and there's nothing on the drive that matches the shortcut. The folders that won't open contain text documents and shouldn't be a shortcut either. It looks like the items that should be there were just replaced or changed and I need a way to get back to them.
DO NOT WRITE TO THAT DRIVE. Look around with the titles listed in the CNET STORAGE FORUM STICKY.
The more you write to said drive, the chances are you overwrite the files you want o recover.
-> By now you are painfully aware why folk carry on so much about a backup copy.
Bob
The backup means what's on the main machine (the original) is still good and you can get that there and re-sync this up.
Bob
<span id="INSERTION_MARKER">Unless the original machine was broken in Afghanistan.
The original machine may still have it on its HDD. We pull that drive and put it in some USB case or cable and get the files out.
Bob
When you've gotten your system back like you want it, I urge you to get yourself an external hard drive and a good 3rd party backup program. You can set it up to do everything automagically at the time and frequency of your choice. 1 TB external hard drives are about $70 these days and a really good FREE backup program is the Easeus todo backup free which you can download from
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm . That can save you a lot of time and frustration the next time something like this happens. Sooner or later it happens to all computers for one reason or another.
Good luck.
To stay in a state of backup I need no less than 3 copies. Original and 2 copies. When one fails I am still backed up.
For stuff I can't lose, that number increases to more copies on more devices, cloud, sticks and more.
Bob
I keep my critical data on my main desktop's hard drive. Then I have a full system backup weekly with incremental backups every 20 min. I also have monthly full system backups going back 6 mos. Every 6 mos. I'll copy my critical data to an 8 GB flash drive which I keep locked in my car. The car is outside the house and it has a security system. If somebody stole my car and set my house on fire, I guess I'd lose my data, but I have a pretty good comfort level about the unlikely nature of that. 
I'm using DropBox to keep a few projects that I can't lose. If you look at how dropbox works, it syncs with each PC I use so the copies self sync and makes the files "Hard To Kill".
I haven't seen that movie in some time but maybe it's time to fish it out.
Bob
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