# samsung s2 portable 1tb usb2.0 external hard drive won't work



## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

I've been using my samsung s2 portable 1tb usb2.0 external hard drive for a while and its been fine but suddenly I can't access anything on it. I keep getting a message that say I need to format my F: drive but in order to do that it will need to erase my files on the drive, which i don't want to do because I've my work on it. What else can I do?


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## mcorton (Apr 16, 2009)

Hi huband92 and welcome to TSF. Please shut the computer down and unplug the samsung. Reboot the computer without it. Try ti find it in the device manager and disable it. Now shut down again and plug it back in and reboot. Hopefully it will reinstall and be recognizable again.

You didn't buy any chance unplug it with the computer running did you?


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

I tried what your said but it didn't work. I still get the same message about needing to format it. btw I didn't unplug it while the computer was running


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## mcorton (Apr 16, 2009)

Run chkdsk /f /r until it finishes or hangs. You type it in the search area when you click start. I haven't used Vista but I think it's in the same place as Windows 7. This will check and try to fix any bad sectors.


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

Yea I gave it a go but I dont think it even ran it just opened and closed straight away.


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## mcorton (Apr 16, 2009)

OUCH!!!! Not a good sign. Let me do some research. We've seen alot of this very same problem as of late. I'll see if nay of them have been solved and how.


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

alright thanks, i'll also keep looking


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

try taking ownership


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

sorry? dai what are you trying to say?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

read here

Easy way to take ownership of system files in Vista & Windows 7 - WinMatrix


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

I've tried taking ownership now but still no luck but I think I might give test disk a go


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## raptor_pa (Dec 5, 2008)

Testdisk is the place to start, the format prompt indicates the MBR is corrupt or missing.


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

Testdisk hasn't helped either


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## raptor_pa (Dec 5, 2008)

Did test disk identify the drive properly? What failed using testdisk, a little more detail on your results will help us figure out the next step.


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

hey yea sorry. i ran testdisk and followed the prompts on the thread 'Have you "lost" a hard drive or partition in your computer' until i completed every step and rebooted the computer when i was done but it still came up with the same problem as before where i couldn't access the hdd without formatting the drive


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## minkoo (Apr 5, 2011)

hi,
i'm stuck with the same problem. my 1tb hdd stopped working, i have been trying to figure out if there is a software that i can use to extract and recover the data to another drive. any help will be much appreciated. 
ps. huand92, did you get your hdd to work?

thanks.


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

I agree with the point about the MBR being corrupt. The files are probably still there and not corrupt, but your computer isn't able to identify the hard drive in the form of a partition / drive letter. So you will have to perform a repair using any software means needed. Since it is a external drive, and not actively in use like the system drive, you should be able to repair it without having to restart your computer or anything.

Give a program like Recuva a try. That way you can retrieve the files off the drive, and once you are sure that the files are working (make sure you check them just in case), you can reformat the drive again so you can start using it. But since this has happened, you should give the drive a full check for errors. I can't see Samsung providing any good disk utility, but you may be able to find another one that isn't provided by the manufacturer and use that. As long as it can read the SMART data and do a full Disk Surface Test (DST), it should do the job.


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

Yeah... unfortunately i wasn't able to get it fixed, apparently the files had become corrupted so pretty much lost everything on the hdd


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Have you tried using a data recovery program such as Recuva, or GetDataBack. However the last one will at least give you an idea of what it can recover, before making you pay for it to make it finish the job. I would suggest trying GetDataBack first, to see what you are able to recover.


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## minkoo (Apr 5, 2011)

Jay_JWLH said:


> Have you tried using a data recovery program such as Recuva, or GetDataBack. However the last one will at least give you an idea of what it can recover, before making you pay for it to make it finish the job. I would suggest trying GetDataBack first, to see what you are able to recover.



Jay_JWLH, thanks so much for your priceless advise, I went ahead with GetDataBack (FAT version) and was able to recover all my data!ray: Took a while(around 40 hours) but everything was recovered onto another disk.
I'm wondering what to do with the old disk, shall I reformat it to NTFS and consider using it or bin it? 

Thanks a lot.


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Well I wasn't quite expecting you to go ahead and pay for GetDataBack, but I don't doubt that if you did pay for it, it would do a good job. I've had data recovered for me before, only to be given a hefty price figure to do it, and most of my data corrupted with no way to tell what files worked and what files didn't. Looking back on it, I could have done it myself even if I had to pay for a program like that one. I think you should have given Recuva a try first at data recovery, in the hopes you didn't have to pay for it by using something free.

Well now for the old hard drive. I'm not sure what caused the problem, but the older and more used the hard drive is, the more likely that it is on its way out. I wouldn't bin it just yet. Instead, run a disk program on it to scan the entire disk for any issues. If it comes back to you after several hours with something like bad sectors, then you are free to use the drive, but don't put anything important on it because you are likely to risk loosing it once it finally dies, or becomes too frustrating to deal with.


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## huand92 (Mar 16, 2011)

Jay_JWLH, mate thanks for your help, i couldn't get everything off my old hdd, but at least i was able to retrieve most of the important files on it... thanks a million mate


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## minkoo (Apr 5, 2011)

Jay_JWLH said:


> Well I wasn't quite expecting you to go ahead and pay for GetDataBack, but I don't doubt that if you did pay for it, it would do a good job. I've had data recovered for me before, only to be given a hefty price figure to do it, and most of my data corrupted with no way to tell what files worked and what files didn't. Looking back on it, I could have done it myself even if I had to pay for a program like that one. I think you should have given Recuva a try first at data recovery, in the hopes you didn't have to pay for it by using something free.
> 
> Well now for the old hard drive. I'm not sure what caused the problem, but the older and more used the hard drive is, the more likely that it is on its way out. I wouldn't bin it just yet. Instead, run a disk program on it to scan the entire disk for any issues. If it comes back to you after several hours with something like bad sectors, then you are free to use the drive, but don't put anything important on it because you are likely to risk loosing it once it finally dies, or becomes too frustrating to deal with.


Yeah, I tried Recuva first but had no luck with it. GetDataBack did the job so its money well spent.
Will run disk check utilities.
thanks again!


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## YourCletus (Oct 2, 2011)

I've got a similar problem with mine. My computer detects a usb devise, and I can fins my samsung portable hard drive in devise manager, but I dont get the icon appearing in MY Computer and I cant get into hard drive


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