Digital Data Portable Device PROBLEM! Help!

07/08/2006 11:10:28 PM · #1

I have a digital portable device that stoped working. It had a double partition (seen as M and N drive on my laptop)one of 30G one of 10G. It has a samsung 40G harddisk.

I keep a lot of my files on it. Today I have cleaned some of the pics and after restarting my computer I found aout that I can not read the M drive. The N drive is still available but most of my pictures are on the other one.

Anyone can help?

Thanks!

Edit: in My computer I can see the drive but opening it it would show nothing. On properties though it says it's 5G even if it should be 30G.

Thats the little guy. The page is in Chinese so don't worry about the mess. Look at the pic Unis DM6500

Edit2: That's what I see on my pc even though the M drive is 30G

Message edited by author 2006-07-08 23:26:03.

07/08/2006 11:28:07 PM · #2

Bump cause I am really desperate!

07/08/2006 11:30:59 PM · #3

Did you use the Safely Remove Hardware feature?

07/08/2006 11:34:11 PM · #4

Now that you mentioned I realize I didn't! Any advise?

07/08/2006 11:36:22 PM · #5

Did you erase with windows or using the device itself?

07/08/2006 11:37:47 PM · #6

Windows. Device cannot erase only copy from cards to HDD. All I do is in Windows.

Message edited by author 2006-07-08 23:40:45.

07/08/2006 11:41:06 PM · #7

Did you turn the device on plugged into the computer? If you did, you may want to try again with the device unplugged.

07/08/2006 11:46:11 PM · #8

I did. Then I unplugged the device and tunred it on. It will show on the display the space available on the second drive. I.E. it showed usually the 11G left on the M drive. Noe it shows only the 1.2G left on the N drive.
I took out the batery, the HDD hoping it's gonna be OK. It didn't!

Message edited by author 2006-07-08 23:46:49.

07/08/2006 11:50:19 PM · #9

This also happened after I emptied the trash bin. Then I wanted to restart the system to have it fresh to do some work. Computer shut down and then I turned off the device. Restarted and problem was on. Then I wanted to copy a card I've shot yesterday and I realized it showed me on the device display only 1.3G. Didn't pay much attention and conenct the device to PC and then I realized somethiong is wrong. I hope I am clear with the steps.

Message edited by author 2006-07-08 23:50:35.

07/08/2006 11:53:18 PM · #10

The other drive on partition is working fine. Only teh first one (and the one with lots of pictures) is not working!!! I feel pretty panicked.

07/09/2006 12:00:57 AM · #11

I like to turn off the device before shutting the computer just in case the device is is reading/writing.

Do you happen to have access to another computer? Just wondering if another computer can possibly read the drive.

07/09/2006 12:01:10 AM · #12

One more thing: the drive I cannot see was named Tiberius. Now it won't read the name anymore.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

07/09/2006 12:03:19 AM · #13

Originally posted by faidoi:

Not right now. Only tomorrow.
Well I have to get used with the idea that I lost the last 6 month pictures and learn the lesson.
Good lesson and chance for a Pheonix start. Maybe it will bring inspitration...hmmmm

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

07/09/2006 12:06:06 AM · #14

What kind of partition is it? (FAT32, NTFS?) It soulds like the partition table has been damaged. Before you give up the ghost, you should run drive recovery software on it. The data is surely there, and especially if it is a FAT partition, it should be recoverable.

Edit:
If you do recover and repartition, make darn sure you run extensive testing on the drive to make sure it doesn't have a physical problem prior to putting data back on it.
Secondly, *always* have at least two copies of all your files. One copy should be physically in a separate location in case of fire or other disaster.

Message edited by author 2006-07-09 00:08:49.

07/09/2006 12:06:45 AM · #15

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Originally posted by faidoi:
I like to turn off the device before shutting the computer just in case the device is is reading/writing.

Do you happen to have access to another computer? Just wondering if another computer can possibly read the drive.

Not right now. Only tomorrow.
Well I have to get used with the idea that I lost the last 6 month pictures and learn the lesson.
Good lesson and chance for a Pheonix start. Maybe it will bring inspitration...hmmmm

If you don't write over the infomation you should still be able to recover.

07/09/2006 12:10:42 AM · #16

Thanks a lot. I won't touch it and see tomorrow.

07/09/2006 12:34:44 AM · #17

bump

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

07/09/2006 01:29:40 AM · #18

Originally posted by kirbic:

Thanks! Sorry I've just seen it. Too messy for me.
Yes it is FAT partition. Can you please detail what should I do.

overclover

Canon EOS-40D

07/09/2006 01:32:28 AM · #19

plug the device back in .... and do a system restore to a a time before you made changes it's worth a shot.

07/09/2006 05:51:57 AM · #20

Anyone? Any ideas?

Thanks

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC for Canon

07/09/2006 09:42:37 AM · #21

bump

Nigel

Canon EOS-40D

07/09/2006 09:54:47 AM · #22

I've had probelms with a removable USB HDD (60GB) before. If your lucky you may be able to fix it with the chkdsk command (used under the command prompt). It attempts to fix problems in the file allocation table.

Message edited by author 2006-07-09 09:55:18.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

07/09/2006 10:00:55 AM · #23

Give this a try. It will probably take quite some time, but if the disk is accessible(and it seems like it is) you should be able to recover files.

EDIT: *don't* run CHKDSK or any other utility on it before you try the recovery software. The more changes you make, the less likely you'll recover data.

Message edited by author 2006-07-09 10:02:22.

eschelar

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

07/09/2006 10:04:23 AM · #24

A few things to try.

#1 Check things out in the DOS shell using (WINdows button +R, then type cmd, to bring up DOS) and try to navigate to it that way.

#2 Make sure you try the other USB port... if you didn't use the remove hardware safely, sometimes one port will get confused... my USB drive is like that.. it won't work correctly on one USB port, but works great on the other... Stupid, I know...

#3 to check to see if the problem is in the disk or the device, (if it is the same size as the one in your laptop... Sounds like a 2.5 inch drive to me...), remove the drive and use a windows boot disk to boot to DOS and see if you can see the drives that way...

Be careful with the CHKDSK command, it can also over write stuff...

Unfortunately, the next steps involve using hard drive recovery software and I'm a little out of my league there.

EDIT: Thanks kirbic, that's exactly what I was hoping someone else would post :) Yer a regular gold mine!

Message edited by author 2006-07-09 10:05:18.