I've got a problem with my external hard driv

all my folders in my external hard drive are gone, i cannot find it anywhere in my drive, i have tried showing hidden file just in case it was just hidden by the virus i got but no luck, i also tried searching it through the search button in the tabs/menus but it only says no results for his search. my external hard drive still have the same use space as it was before it is infected, all my folders are gone but replaced by applications with the same file name as all my folder does and all this application files are with the same size. i also look into the recycle been but nothing is in there i tried to empty the recycle bin and it ask to if i am sure i want to delete 7 items tough there is nothing in there but still i click yes and tried doing it again and it still ask me again with the same number of items, how could it be? what should i do, there are lots of important files is in my folders...