Background: Samsung series 9 ultrabook, i5-3317, 4GB ram, running W7 x64.

I transferred a load of files (mixed but office-type stuff, excel, ppt, pdf etc) onto a Lexar 16GB thumbdrive (FAT32 if that makes a difference). Everything was present and correct on the drive, I deleted the files off the external harddrive they were previously on.

Remounted the drive, and get 'this folder is empty'. Checking properties still shows 6GB used, and viewing hidden/system files shows 2 folders with a load of .chk 'recovered file fragments' files in there.

I have used various undelete programs and got some of the files back, but then this morning I mounted the stick again to actually finally admit defeat and wipe it when... it all came back. Everything. The folder structure, every file, everything was suddenly back again.

I moved some files around (on and off the stick), removed it, plugged it back in again ..... 'this folder is empty'.

Now, I know already that I was stupid in not copying the entire contents across as soon as I got it back. But I didn't. So sue me.

Anyway, tried remounting it about fifty times since then, and always 'empty'. Have tried remounting before restart, remounting while praying, remounting while whistling a happy tune...... no good.

Does anyone have any idea what happened? Or any idea of how to make it happen again?

help or advice gratefully received.

Stewie