Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

After i expanded the volume image that i had created with secretzone (its size was about 300GB and i added 10GB) i cannot mount it succesfully. The virtual drive always appears in Windows Explorer when i try to mount the volume, however its status in secretzone remains "not mounted" (only the letter of the virtual drive appears). The first time i tried to enter it after the expansion, i did it successfully and the problem started the moment i double-clicked on the folder where i kept all my files. I got an error message and Windows Explorer (Windows vista) was shut down. Now i cannot enter the volume at all and everytime i double-click on the virtual drive i get an error message that the file or volume is destroyed and cannot be read. According to the Samsung manuals, "expanding the volume image does not affect the existing data" and there is no warning about something that can go wrong. The physical hard drive is of course accessible. There was nore than 300GB free space when i did the expansion and i guess i can delete the volume image and regain its space. Is there a way however to recover any of that data. I would appreciate any help on this... Thank you!

Reply 1 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

cyan0,

First, what's secretzone?
Second, what were you trying to do?

--HDTech

Reply 2 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Thanks for your reply! Secretzone is a program provided by samsung that creates partitions to a disk that can be encrypted (password protected volume images that are mounted to a virtual drive after entering the password). The same program can expand a partition/volume image, that is adding more bytes to it after it was initially created... and that was what i tried to do. As i wrote at my first post according to the Samsung manuals, "expanding the volume image does not affect the existing data". However i cannot access the volume image after i expanded it. It was somehow damaged by the expansion procedure which is supposedly safe. Is there a way to recover any of the data that were stored in that partition or fix the problem entirely? Thanks again for your help!

Reply 3 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

cyan0,

Try, with a paper clip, pressing the RESET button, which is located to the right of the >> button. While it shouldn't affect the files you have on there already, it might. But that may reset the player, at least for you to try again.

Keep me posted.

--HDTech

Reply 4 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

I guess at post No4 there is a reply to another topic/discussion. No player here, just an external hard disk.

Reply 5 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Hi there,
I have the same problem cyan0 reported.
after expand the secret zone from 100Gb to 200Gb, (the process took a long time and ended ok) I cannot access to this partition anymore. Downloaded lastest versions and tried with different computers with no success...

I guess if someone at Samsung has noticed this problem...

any solution?

Reply 6 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Hi!

I have the same problem on my Samsung G2 external drive, but the difference is that when I tried expanding the volume image size the process didn't complete right. I could access the partition right after that, but when I unplugged the hard drive and tried to mount the image later, it cannot be mounted. The image icon is visible, but when I try to access it I get a message tht the fie is corrupt and unreadable, while it is still listed as unmounted on SecretZone software. Any known solutions for this?

Thanks

Reply 7 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

While i was searching for an answer to this problem, i have come across tot his discussion topic. I had a 650 GB secret zone in my Samsung Story 3.0 external hard disk. I have calculated the free space and i tried to expand it to 1.3 TB and after taking hours it has given an error message and the expansion could not be completed. But the previous secret zone partition remained the same and i can still see that 650 GB part. Although i enter the right password now my secret zone partition vould not be mounted and it is impossible to reach my data! Now i am trying some data recovery softwares but i am not hopeful. I will inform if any of those softwares work. I hope a tech from samsung can help us otherwise i won't buy any samsung product from now on. Let's inform each other if any of us can find a solution for this.

Reply 8 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Where is the backup copy?

Reply 9 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Well, i don't have a backup copy unfortunately

Reply 10 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

If samsung does not offer recovery services then http://www.drivesavers.com is next.

Yes we have ideas in the Cnet Storage forum sticky but I fear these do not apply.
Bob

Reply 11 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Thanks for the link, i will check it... Samsung only offers some of their partner recovery sites which don't give any service in my country. Actually i know that most recovery services are too expensive that i'd rather give up. I have mailed them twice but they just don't help about recovery, i lost my data because of their crap software. I am sure they added this software without testing it before. If it has been tested we wouldn't suffer the same data loss problem here. From now on i will not buy any kind of Samsung products anymore. There is no help, no support, they don't even know what kind of problems they cause. Do i have to pay thousands of dollars for data recovery just because of their fault? I think those guys should feel more responsible when producing something. We are paying money for their products in order to keep our data safe, not for losing them!

Reply 12 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

But no HDD maker today will offer data recovery services for free even if you prove their software had a fault. For decades we are told to backup what we can't lose yet the message is often lost or folk think that these externals are "storage."

Top it off with software to lock up content (folderlock, drive locker and more) and you see the recipe for disasters. This is why my files are on many drives, and the ones I can't lose are on DVD. And then I have a pair of USB keys to hold yet another copy of the few things I absolutely can't lose. One of those keys is in a safe place in a zip lock bag with desiccant.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Next time, keep a backup copy.
Bob

Reply 13 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Hi cyan0
the exact same thing happened to me this morning. Please if you find a solution please let me know.
Do you know how can i at least retrieve the disk space without reformatting the disc?
thanks

Reply 14 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

I have tried to expand my volume image from 400 to 500 Gb. I have noticed that after the expansion the .msr file shown in the secretzone list is still 400Gb, but the file size shown in windows file explorer is 411Gb. Does any of you Samsung people have any hints regarding this problem? Is there a way to recover our data or should we consider them lost forever?
we would appreciate an answer.

Reply 15 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

I have downloaded all possible data recovery softwares and i am running them on my hard disk at the moment. Just because my external disk has a 1.5 TB capacity the softwares are running too slow and taking approximately 24 hours. I think it will take more time, at least 2 weeks trying to rescue the data in different ways with all of those available softwares. If i can find a way and the right software which does the job, i will share my experience with all of you guys here. Also keep trying to find a solution and share your experiences.

Reply 16 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

I have found out that lots of data recovery softwares can make it possible to save the '(file name.msr)' to another partition. I have scanned the whole disk with Active@ File Recovery spending 24 hours and it can make it possible to save the image file itself. The file recovery softwares don't show the contents inside the image
file but they just make it possible to save the image file itself. However i don't have enough free space to save this image file so i couldn't make it possible to check whether it is possible to extract the contents from the image file. The question is even if we can save this data on another partition, how can we extract the files hidden inside the image file called 'file_name.msr' ? If someone can find a way to extract the files from this image file i will be really pleased.

Reply 17 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

On my 1Tb disc i had a 400Gb secret area which i tried to expand to 500Gb. After that i could still see my disc and had accesss to the msr file in F:\secretzoneadmin folder, but i could not mount it because the expansion process corrupted it. So im afraid my dear friend shamandrums that our data are lost forever. You can stop looking for software to read the msr contents. the only software that can do that is samsungs secretzone algorithm which did the encryption on it. But the msr file is corrupted so even its creator cant read it. The data that i have lost were my collection of home movies which i spent 2 months transfering them on the samsung disc. Now i will buy another brand of hard disc other than samsung and start all over again. i know there are samsung people that read this forum but they pretend they are deaf so this is the last time i buy a samsung product. have a good day.

Reply 18 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Well maybe you are right my friend but i am not losing my hope and i will buy a new hard disk (which won't be a samsung this time!) and i will save the .msr file to that disk for a future recovery. I have sent Samsung several e-mails but they haven't even pretended to fix their fault. They only suggest data recovery services or 3rd party data recovery softwares. They just sell their corrupted product and then they don't even care what happens to their costumers. The data loss we had was not our fault. It is the fault of Samsung and as you said it has been the last Samsung product that i have bought and i will not even buy a single Samsung product including other devices from now on. It is Samsung's loss after all.

Reply 19 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Do you buy Microsoft's products?

Reply 20 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

Sorry but what does microsoft products have to do with this subject?

Reply 21 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

It fails, folks lose their works and they usually buy it again BUT learn a lesson.

No matter which maker you go with there is a risk it will lose your files. Either with some bundled app, fault or other.

It's a shame the makers are not warning folk about backups but here's the reason we came up in sessions about marketing some other storage system,. Ready?

Let's say that vendor A admonishes the users to keep a backup copy.

Vendor B doesn't mention backup.

Result? Consumers think that Vendor's B products must be more reliable.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
Bob

Reply 22 : Samsung S2 external hard drive 1TB - Volume Image Error

More at http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7588_102-524349.html?messageId=5119328&tag=rb_content;contentAux#message5119328

and

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/seagate-lands-samsungs-hard-drive-unit-for-137-billion-its-duopoly-time/47442?tag=posts;msg5119328