External SSD not visible

[Quattro Pete]

I got a new Samsung T7 portable SSD. It came formatted as exFAT. When I used Windows 10 to reformat it as NTFS, the format process froze saying the drive can no longer be accessed. From that point on, the drive is not visible anywhere:

- not under My Computer
- not under Disk Management
- not under MiniTool Partition Wizard
- not under GParted (Ubuntu)

Is there anything I can do to revive it or is it hosed for good?

Thanks!

 

[Pew]

Does it show under diskpart?

 

[yst]

Samsung Magician might be your choice.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Does it show under diskpart?

list disk command within diskpart does not show it.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Samsung Magician might be your choice.

Samsung Magician does not see it. Neither does Samsung Portable SSD Software.

 

[spackard]

You may have to work on removing the device driver and all files it dumped into places, then work on reinstalling the driver.

In my experience these external SSDs aren't normal blank media. They work with their own encryption driver. Not a good idea to change the filesystem.

 

[yst]

Solved: exFAT Drive Not Recognized in Windows 10

 

[Quattro Pete]

You may have to work on removing the device driver and all files it dumped into places, then work on reinstalling the driver.

Where would I find this driver?
Besides, if it was a Windows driver issue, then it should still be visible in Ubuntu, but it is not.

In my experience these external SSDs aren't normal blank media. They work with their own encryption driver. Not a good idea to change the filesystem.

User manual for this drive clearly states that it supports NTFS under Windows.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Solved: exFAT Drive Not Recognized in Windows 10

Thanks, but none of this works because the device itself is nowhere to be found.

 

[oggb]

Disconnect the drive, reboot, open disk management and see if it you see it.

If all else fails load Ubuntu up on a bootable USB drive and do what you need to do. Oh, nvm just saw you already tried linux. Sounds like RMA time.

 

[jim04g]

You've done pretty much everything.

Sounds like in Device Manager already tried Action:Scan for hardware changes, and View:Hidden Devices etc., and assume tried "lsusb" in Linux terminal to list USB devices. And it's not listed.

So if not an internal failure perhaps only the USB connection is left.

If you've tried Win10 and Linux on the same physical machine, try a different USB port. Try a different USB cable (assuming it's not integrated). (If it were an old HDD in an old case, I'd say give it more power.) And even a different machine if you have one.

Good luck. (At least it's new, so if it's an unrecoverable failure you can return it without losing any data.)

 

[yst]

Have to look at it in BIOS?

 

[spackard]

Uninstall portable SSD software:

Yes, it can be uninstalled as follows:

On a Windows PC, open the PSSD_Cleanup.bat file from the directory where the software is installed (e.g., OS Installation Drive\ProgramData\Samsung Apps\Portable SSD) and proceed with uninstallation, or go to Control Panel → Programs and Features → Samsung Portable SSD Software to uninstall.

On a Mac PC, remove the Portable SSD from the Thunderbolt port and use the CleanupAll.scpt from the directory where the software is installed (e.g., Home/Library/Application Support/PortableSSD) with osascript to uninstall it (osascript CleanupAll.scpt).


Next, try:

Archived - Samsung Community

us.community.samsung.com

 

[Quattro Pete]

You've done pretty much everything.

Sounds like in Device Manager already tried Action:Scan for hardware changes, and View:Hidden Devices etc., and assume tried "lsusb" in Linux terminal to list USB devices. And it's not listed.

So if not an internal failure perhaps only the USB connection is left.

If you've tried Win10 and Linux on the same physical machine, try a different USB port. Try a different USB cable (assuming it's not integrated). (If it were an old HDD in an old case, I'd say give it more power.) And even a different machine if you have one.

Good luck. (At least it's new, so if it's an unrecoverable failure you can return it without losing any data.)

Thank you. It turned out to be a faulty OEM USB cable. Reading Amazon reviews I've found another customer with the same issue.

All is well now.

 

[JHZR2]

That was going to be my ask - are you sure the cable is good?

I have two of these drives and like them a lot.

 

[Quattro Pete]

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