I have a problem with External Hard Drive

[cooltwou]

When I plug it into any game system they no longer see it but when I plug it into my laptop under devices and printers it shows the device but it doesn’t show up under my computer and it it’s a Samsung External Hard Drive and the blue light on the Hard Drive does light up.

My question is there anyway to access the External hard drive so I can get the media off the Hard Drive and be able to format it

[Mr.Masami]

Looks like the partitions are corrupted, that's why system can't mount it.

If that's the case and if the files are really important you could try some recovery programs, in many cases it is a very long process and the files could be corrupted anyway.

If not just go to (assuming you're using Windows) to: Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management or just press Win+r and run this: %windir%\system32\compmgmt.msc or diskmgmt.msc
Then choose Storage->Disk Management like on the pic below:



From here you should be able to delete broken partitions/create new and format the drive. (maybe you only need to manually set the disk letter/path)

@update: found this on the interwebs for seagate external usb drive, may work for samsung as well:

I solved the problem ..all i had to do was go to device manager -> under storage controllers selected the "USB Attached SCSI (UAS) Mass Storage Device" which comes up when i connect the drive -> right click and select update driver software ->browse my computer option -> let me pick ... option -> in the listed drivers i selected mass storage device and clicked OK. Everything works fine now ..

[cooltwou]

I am not sure what the problem is but when you plug it into my laptop it makes some kind of noises and beeps or something like that

[dueda]

I've a 500GB Samsung external drive, 2012 model. It has a blue light but as far as I know, it lacks any sound device to make beeps.

Beeps here are from the PC, when Windows pop-up an error message. I suspect you may be hearing the "zings and tangs" from the arm moving back and forth quickly, a factory programmed method to force the arm to unclog and realign to track zero. This can be just bad parameters easy to fix (just rewrite them with a proper program) or a defective drive and/or bad sectors (magnectic disc burnout).

BE CAREFUL for any maintenance / recovery tool can destroy a partition or it's data files. Learn and try on a test drive before making changes.

That said, I've used MiniTool for years and it is a lifesaver; you can split, merge and edit partitions parameters.
It has a partition wizard that can assign / change drive letters (like C:, F:, X, change disks to GPT, exFat, NTFS, etc and split/merge. Very easy.

Also on their site you can find partition and data recovery tools. I don't use that kind of tools for they usually don't recover the folder tree, just the data files.
Can't tell about MiniTool's but EaseUs will give you a root directory full of files and possibly random names (like "File0001.avi"). If it take a couple days to find all potential files (some are just garbage that you long deleted, but it will bring them back), you'll spend days sorting out the mess, if possible.

To avoid mistakes that can make things worse and losing everything, they offer a disk backup / image copy. Not sure if it will work on a damaged partition.
Some erros are just a bad partition type descriptor (a small number), others can't be circunvented. But you gotta give it a try to find out.

The bad side is you need another drive with enough space to make a copy. If things go south, you may recreate the invalid drive (with yet another unit) then start over with other parameters or even other tools.

Instead of learning all this and buying two or more drives just to go thru such hassle for days, maybe you'll want to ask for help from a professional technician.
If not, keep in mind you may lose important data doing it yourself.

The current version 10 of MiniTool if free for home use and lacks just a few options used by corporate IT guys, and works with HDDs, SSDs, USBs and even TFs.

---

Btw, check this thread https://pirates-forum.org/Thread-Bittore...ry-corrupt

[Mr.Masami]

I've seen people opening the disk and manually moving the arm to the outside of the platter but it's a temporary fix and will surely damage your hard drive due to particles in air. (Don't touch or blow on a platter)
If you're lucky, it may work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Y7BniaRXg

[dueda]

Really risky operation; although it can be done, I think it is better left for proper maintenance shops.
One needs a really clean closed environment, gloves, headgear and mask; firm hands too.
And to know what they're doing, not my case.

[EddieXTC]

Not sure how "good" you are with computers.

But using linux could help you acces the disk, depends on how damaged your ext hdd is. Linux is less picky on what to open compared to windows. (Worked for me a couple of times when i wasnt able to acces hdds from windows)

You could try downloading an linux live cd/dvd and burn it onto an dvd or create an bootable usb.

[RodneyYouPlonker]

To the original poster:

If it's Windows 10 that you're using it probably explains why you're having problems...

Windows 10 is a disgusting piece of crap that goes wrong everytime they give one of those crappy updates for it.

Windows 10 is a complete mess, anybody who has that OS is guaranteed to run into multiple problems where things don't work right

The best Microsoft Operating System of all time was and always will be Windows 7.  Nothing else comes close really even the embarrassment of Windows 10 considering how much time and effort they have already put into it.

Come January 2020 Windows 7 will be history and no more.  When that happens all the Windows 7 people in the world will come out of the woodwork crying and screaming cos their lovely OS is as good as toast.

Windows 7 is doomed and it's the only one that does work right you can believe me totally.

One of the major problems with 10 is the drivers they are all messed up.  The whole driver thing with Windows 10 is a joke really and all this nonsense that Microsoft install by default is rubbish and don't work right at all.

If you're using 10 then I would strongly advise in the future maybe swapping over to Linux and using that to get away from it.  Maybe just try and read a book or something to learn more.  When 7 is gone there will be a huge uproar, it will cause a mess globally.  Those Microsoft idiots have got a lot to answer for really no wonder all the Russians in Moscow all dumped them.

[Mr.Masami]

This is not a system problem.

The same shit people said about every new OS by microsoft, Win10 aside from too big /too often updates is the greatest system M$ came up with.
If you're not playing games, Linux is the way to go anyway. No reason to install any M$.

...
When 7 is gone there will be a huge uproar, it will cause a mess globally. Those Microsoft idiots have got a lot to answer for really no wonder all the Russians in Moscow all dumped them.
...

People are already pissing on Win7 from what I see on my company server web daemon log stats.

...
Maybe just try and read a book or something to learn more. Windows 7 is doomed and it's the only one that does work right you can believe me totally.
...

Weird, I never had problem with ANY system... maybe you need to read some books ?

This is not a thread about system wars.. will be happy to continue on a dedicated thread.

BTW. Windows 98 SE+ FOREVER!

[cooltwou]

Well the person that said something about putting Linux I can’t do that my laptop has no disk drive at all and I don’t want to format my laptop at all because I have Media I want to keep on it and I am not taking my laptop apart either and I just want to know is there any software I can download that will help me access this hard drive