Linux recursive chmod = death?

[sci4me]

Ok, I have an external HDD and the permissions on it were.. messed up. I looked online and found this command:

 

sudo chmod -R 646 thehddmountpoint

 

next thing i know: all the files/folders show up as a "binary file". I think the data is still fine its just the file is messed up.. the type. 

How do I fix this? I have 50GB of data on there.. (and yes I know it was dumb to run a recursive command like that but .. shuddup lol)

 

I can still go into the directories through terminal.. but the file types are all messed up so i cant use the file browser...

what to do...

 

if i use 

 

sudo nautilus

 

they work fine...hmm 

 

so, it seems that root is the only one that can properly view them.. hrmmm

 

ok, i should have permissions to it and yet i dont.. wtft

 

so i guess i can copy the data to another place and get a working copy.. so.. that's what ill do. 

man, i was worried...