External Hard Drive shows no files/my computer show approx. 600 GB occupied

Hello,

OK...I'm 51yo female quite tech savvy for my age and gender. I have a Samsung External HD with my life's work on it basically. I am in between moving and have everything from old PC,s Laptops etc backed up on this device. All my college work as I am studying, all my web site stuff as I am building a website, you get the idea IT'S IMPORTANT!

Last night while doing my thing lost of stuff open, shut, open, shut, save, delete etc I once again go to MY COMPUTER to access a document and the drive shows up empty when open "this folder contains no files" however on My computer is shows it is still loaded up with all my crap.

I have tried 3 or 4 restore/rescue programs thus far to no avail. Also as I am currently of no fixed address my major PC with mega storage space in actual storage 3 hours away.

QUESTION:

1. How can I re-visualise the files (done show hidden files) without having to restore data to current lap top with virtualy no space on it?

2. Can up restore the data to an online thing such as Google drive and how do I do that?

3. If I buy a NEW Ext. HD can I restore the data to that?

4. What program actually WORKS to recover images, word docs, exe programs everything basically. If I have to but a paid version I am happy to as I am sur that is still cheaper than taking to some rip off tech place.

Thank you anyone/everyone... also I note when I try and open the drive the window that comes up only gives me 2 choices instead of the usual 5 or 6 or 7 I used to get when opening the drive.

I also tried to open it on a friends PC it came up with 2 files. one folder named something like Folder.0000 and a recycle bin folder neither of which I tried to open.

Thanks again all :confused

 

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Sorry to hear about your problem. If you do not have backups of these files and have already tried several restore programs, it may be time to turn the drive over to a person or company that specialize in data recovery. (Please don't be offended by this. I've been working on PCs for over 15 years and there are many times I've had to consult a specialist as well).

Please be aware this could get quite expensive. If the drive can be recovered intact, you're likely looking at a few hundred dollars including the cost of a new drive. If the drive has to be sent for disassembly in a "clean room" to read directly off the platters, it could go as high as $1500, depending on the amount of data recovered.

Do not allow any recovery program you use personally to reformat the drive or remove/resize partitions - this could go further damage to the files.

Sorry for the bad news, but I hope this helps.

 

Hi, thank you for you honest constuctive answer, OMG such bad news ... this was my back up...and if I was not so unwell with chronic illness, trying to deal with moving house and a long list of other major crappoo I would have followd through with my intuition and had the stuff stored online somewhere before this happened, I was soooooo close I had even been checking prices, then life gets in the way especially when one is ill and this happens, it will take me a year to save up $1,500 ish if it comes to that, gosh this sucks so much and I am on a disability pension so money is very tight. Again thank you for your advice.

If you happen to know anyone is Australia who knows a reputable person to look at the device and give me a quote that would be most appreciated. I can barely bring my self to think about losing this data, am sure you understand.

Thanks again

Penelope

 

Welcome to Major Geeks, Oopsy :wave

What model of Samsung External drive do you have?

I'm see you have tried using different USB ports on your computer, and tried a different computer. I'm with gman on this - if the files are of vital importance and you can afford to, you should take it to a Pro and see if they can recover the files for you.

What recovery/restore programs have you used? Some of those if not used carefully can cause more problems then they solve

I've had problems with external drives . . . not exactly like your issue, but close. If money is an issue there is one thing you can try: One time a USB drive would show up in my computer Ok, and the drive tools indicated there were files on the drive (X-number of GB's used), but opening the drive produced a blank screen as if there were no files there. I was able to remove the hard-drive from the external enclosure and determined it had a standard SATA interface. I then connected it to one of the available SATA ports on my computer's motherboard, and when opened my files were there. This was on a Windows based computer, by the way.

It seemed that my computer could "see" the external enclosure ok, but for some reason was unable to access the actual files on the hard drive in the enclosure . . . but once the drive was connected directly to the motherboard it could. Something in the enclosure hardware had failed, I assume. Not saying such a step will work for you, but if your computer has the proper interface for whatever kind of drive it has (PATA or SATA) it might be something to give a try, if you cannot afford or do not want to take it to a shop. The model number of your external drive is important, because a few such devices come with non-standard connections.

I hope you get it sorted out

 

Hi Penelope,

One possibility is that the Samsung had some auto-installing encryption software installed (I know for instance that certain models of Western Digital external drives do); if the encryption driver/filter installed on your notebook were to become corrupt, or it's startup blocked, what you see currently on the drive may be the encrypted folder (full drive contents) without unencryption.

So, exact details of the Samsung model are needed so that we can investigate this possibility and any likely fixes found.

 

Hi all,

Well I thank you guys for your input now I have some of my own to add in the hope it may help others out without some mega out of pocket expense.

As I had said I had tried a few "recommended" data recovery programs to no avail which led me here.

I happened to tell a friend and they said years ago they tried something called "getback" or something. I found a program called "getdataback" try before you buy. BIGGGGGGG bonus the TRY actually works. It spent about 16 hours scanning the external HD and according to the stats it had found the EXACT size of the invisable data @ approx 650GB. I was able to view ANY files at random to see if they were complete. I then just had to purchase the program for $69 USD and I got ALL my stuff back, yes every last byte. There are 2 versions I was told about the NTS version but mine were FAT files, I was able to split the recovery onto a new WD externaldrive I bought only 500GB and the D: drive on interim lap top.

At 51yo female semi geekafied by necessity I am VERRRRRRRRRRY happy. I don't know if the name of this program can be put somewhere useful that you guys use or know of. They have several other additional programs for various things but I am THRILLED. They can be found at recovermyfiles.com

THE most important $69 I ever spent and that is very affordable for a lot of people. Am sure I could have found a "free" version through torrents but hey...small price to pay for my success. It also lets you save the recovery tree and I was not scared to click open close copy move anything etc by the time I was through with the process which of course took time.

So a very big THANK YOU for your advice and now I can put my data on Google Drive or something.:hyper:dancer:celebrate