Help, external hard drive stopped working

IronWolf

Hi

Wondering if someone can help me. I have a portable external hard drive that I have a lot of things saved on that I want to get off. When I plug it in, the computer recognises that a Samsung device is plugged in the USB port, but no drive appears in My Computer.

After a while, 10 minutes or so, it comes up with the error message

"You need to format the disk in drive F: before you can use it

Do you want to format it?"

I haven't as I know that would wipe it but I really want to get the things off it. Anyone got any ideas? I have tried it on several different computers and its the same, and have also tried different wires so its definitely a problem with the hard drive.

I also tried some drive recovery software but it doesn't work because the computer doesnt recognise it as a hard drive plugged in

glentoran99

could be a problem with the holder rather than the drive, if it was mine id take it out and connect it directly to a computer and take it from there

IronWolf

I dont think it can be easily opened up and got at and I wouldn't really know how to connect it.

I'm trying a program called testDisk at the moment and it seems to be working, its letting me copy and paste things from the hard drive so hopefully I can get things off onto the new hard drive I've bought

Fightsback

Hmm, what's the model of Samsung ? I suspect it's one of those with the USB controller built directly into HDD mainboard.

IronWolf

Its this hard drive
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0053ZAQ06?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

glentoran99

Fightsback wrote: »

Hmm, what's the model of Samsung ? I suspect it's one of those with the USB controller built directly into HDD mainboard.

think your right


http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/external-25-usb-hard-drive-mini-port-issues-samsung


not as easy as just taking it apart then

debitcardmayhem

IronWolf wrote: »

I dont think it can be easily opened up and got at and I wouldn't really know how to connect it.

I'm trying a program called testDisk at the moment and it seems to be working, its letting me copy and paste things from the hard drive so hopefully I can get things off onto the new hard drive I've bought

Testdisk is very very good, but for future sanity please buy another disk and keep two copies....

Edited: Oh a few cloud copies for stuff you can't replace

pendragon_arther

I've got one of these and had a similar problem. So I had to run an error check which can only be done in safemode. Now it's working again.

IronWolf

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Testdisk is very very good, but for future sanity please buy another disk and keep two copies....

Edited: Oh a few cloud copies for stuff you can't replace

I have back ups of everything very important and most of my documents are on Google drive, but all my movies and TV shows are just too big to have two copies really.

Strider590

Have you tried a different USB port and/or a different USB cable?

My GFs USB3 HDD stopped working a few weeks back (not the same error as yours though), I swapped the cable for one of mine and it suddenly started working again.

HOWEVER, I have to be honest, the error you have would indicate a corrupt master file table, usually caused by not doing "safely remove hardware" from the task bar notification area. Unlike a USB stick, Windows treats external hard drives as through they were internal and if you physically remove the drive while Windows has it's MFT open, it will 9 times in 10 cause irreparable damage.