I think a virus erased files in external drive

[fotol8y]

My computer will only start in safe mode and when I went to my external drives to restore from my back up it said the file was empty. I plugged 2 of my externals on another computer and both say the file is empty. Years and years of photos and all my business documents were on these. I am so sick about this. Back to the computer, I tried system restore and it says the disk has been disabled or something. I almost attempted to put it back to original settings which would not be that big a deal if I can get everything from my external drives... Is there any hope at all?

 

[tigerg]

Well, I say there is hope. Just about all viruses today aren't malicious towards data. They steal data or personal details, but nearly none of them actually corrupt your drives (though some lock them up and make you pay to get your data back, but this doesn't sound like it).

Why will your computer only start in safe mode? What changed that caused this?

DONT overwrite these drives with any new data. If you do, you will surely lose the photos and stuff.