Won't find USB hard drive
I've tried googling and nothing I came up with has helped so I thought I'd have a go here.
I have a Samsung 500 GB external USB hard drive that I've used for over a year. I currently run Vista 64-bit. It has worked perfectly before, but now I can't find it from my computer when I plug it in. Last night it worked as it should.
I can hear the hard drive start but then nothing more happens.
I looked in disk management and it doesn't even show up there. I've tried reinstalling all the USB drivers, but it still won't work. I've tried plugging it in to a different port.
Does anyone know the cause or the solution to this?
I've booted with a live CD and it turns out that the hard drive was not unplugged correctly so I managed to mount it by forcing it. It also said that if I was running Windows that I should run the Safely remove hardware to "repair" it. But it won't disconnect safely. :| Says it's still being used but I still can't find the drive.
When you copy files into an hard drive, they are not "directly copied", they are only written in a buffer. When you take off an NTFS usb drive without using the safe remove, the OS didn't flush the buffer… Infact if you put the drive in a Linux distro it says:
$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0) Failed to mount '/dev/sdd1': Operation not supported Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. Choose one action:
Choice 1: If you have Windows then disconnect the external devices by clicking on the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly.
Choice 2: If you don't have Windows then you can use the 'force' option for your own responsibility. For example type on the command line:
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdd1 /media/cdrom0 -o force
Or add the option to the relevant row in the /etc/fstab file:
/dev/sdd1 /media/cdrom0 ntfs-3g defaults,force 0 0
So, don't forget to unmount all drive before taking them off.
Demons Halo wrote: that's why vista SUCKS!
If no transactions from/to the disk are running, I don't see any reason for why you should not be able to remove it simply by unplugging it! I do that with windows xp all the time and nothing happens!
You are wrong… you think that nothing happens, but you are only lucky because every single time you edit a file, datas are written into the buffer… When the buffer is full, it is automatically emptied. So is probably that you unplug it when the buffer is empty or when you haven't done any editing on the hard drive.
that is what I meant with If no transactions are being made.
If I'm editing a file on my C:\ drive and I unplug E:\ nothing will happen. I've tried it a thousand times.
It's like when unzipping a compressed file. First off the information gets copied to a "buffer" / temp folder, afterward they get copied to the directory you want them to be in, I've noticed that many times. (correct me if I'm wrong plz)
My guess is that he was in a hurry so he unplugged the device before all the transactions were done.
//D.H.
If I'm editing a file on my C:\ drive and I unplug E:\ nothing will happen. I've tried it a thousand times.
Yeah, this is obvious… you are not working on "E".
It's like when unzipping a compressed file. First off the information gets copied to a "buffer" / temp folder, afterward they get copied to the directory you want them to be in, I've noticed that many times. (correct me if I'm wrong plz)
no, this is inaccurate, you are confusing two different things. The buffer is managed by the OS, only OS can access to the buffer (this is inaccurate too because the only one that can write on memory or hard drives is the kernel, or programs that runs in Supervisor Mode like Graphic Card's drivers). Folders are an abstraction of the reality, when you extract the file you write into the buffer, when the buffer is full the OS flush it into the hard drive and so on. The fact that the information gets copied to a temp folder, is only to have a restore point.
Unzipping files and buffering are two different things.
My guess is that he was in a hurry so he unplugged the device before all the transactions were done.
Yes, this is possible… Anyway, usually all usb drives needs to be unmounted, but don't worry, now exists the possibility to optimize the "fast unplugging", in windows you can disable the cache so you can disconnect the drive without using the safe remove button.
Cyph3rHell wrote:
[quote]It's like when unzipping a compressed file. First off the information gets copied to a "buffer" / temp folder, afterward they get copied to the directory you want them to be in, I've noticed that many times. (correct me if I'm wrong plz)
no, this is inaccurate, you are confusing two different things. The buffer is managed by the OS, only OS can access to the buffer (this is inaccurate too because the only one that can write on memory or hard drives is the kernel, or programs that runs in Supervisor Mode like Graphic Card's drivers). Folders are an abstraction of the reality, when you extract the file you write into the buffer, when the buffer is full the OS flush it into the hard drive and so on. The fact that the information gets copied to a temp folder, is only to have a restore point.
Unzipping files and buffering are two different things. [/quote]
ah that's a lot more accurate xD I just tried to comare how files get copied around before they reach their destination.
now since we're talking about HDD I have a question. What if I were transfering files into my external HDD, and I just pull the plug. The buffer info wont have any place to be dumped/flushed to. so what happens to the info? does it just dissapear or does it keep trying to connect to the unplugged device?