Need help opening a folder

I'm in great need of help. Some files on my external hard drive changed formats. I had a lot of file folders, which contained microsoft word files. It seems that the "file folders" changed into "files" and now I can't access the file folders/files. When I click on them, a window pops up asking me which program I want to use to open the file. I have Windors Vista and haven't disconencted my hard drive or changed my operating system. When I click on properties for one of the folders, this is what shows up:

Type of file: File
Description: Essays
Location: J:/Writing
Size: 32.0 KB (32,768 bytes)
Size on disk: 32.0 KB (32,768 bytes)
Created: Saturday, October 11, 2008, 6:05:07PM
Modified: Saturday, October 11, 2008, 6:05:08PM
Accessed: Today, March 29, 2009
Attributes: Nothing is checked in the Read-only, Hidden, or Archive

It should be "file folders" as the type of file, but now it says file, which is why I can't access it anymore. Does anyone know what happened or what I can do to open them?

 

When the open with dialog box come up try selecting Explorer as the program to open the files folder.

 

When I tried to open it using Internet Explorer, I am prompted to "save" or "find." When I click "find" I got the following msg:

Windows has the following information about this MIME type. This page will help you find software needed to open your file.

MIME Type: application/octet-stream

Description: UnKnown
Windows does not recognize this MIME type.



I just noticed that all the problem files have the same size even though I know some of the files inside should take up more memory. I'm not sure if that's important, but I just noted it.

 

Use Windows Explorer not Internet Explorer.

 

Nothing happened with I tried to open the "file" with Windows Explorer. It just goes back to the window asking me to pick a program that will open the "file."