Hard Drive needs formatting after being plugged into the Smart TV

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VanessaFroste

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Apr 6, 2014
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Hi. I store all my movies and series in my external hardrive (My Passport). I plugged it into my Samsung SmartTV and it worked properly. I plugged it into my laptop and it keeps on asking to be formatted. I tried plugging it into other computers (all running with Windows 7). When I plug it into the SamsungTV, it still works properly. All my stuff are there. Need help ASAP. Thanks!
 
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trekzone
Its just a file system error that is detected by windows. Maybe you unplug it while the TV is ON. I think there's no need to format the drive, samsung smart TVs supports FAT16/32 and NTFS. Just try to use chkdsk to repair the drive.
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I suggest you should perform [drive letter]:\chkdsk /f on that external disk that might help you fix the file system error on you disk. just substitute the [drive letter] with the corresponding drive letter of your external drive in your PC.
 
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Your Smart TV has formatted the drive to work with the TV. If you want to use the drive on your PC again, you must re-format it on your PC, which of course will destroy the data that's on it.

So if that is not acceptable to you, keep the Passport drive exclusively for using on your Smart TV & buy another portable drive for using exclusively on your PC.
 
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Its just a file system error that is detected by windows. Maybe you unplug it while the TV is ON. I think there's no need to format the drive, samsung smart TVs supports FAT16/32 and NTFS. Just try to use chkdsk to repair the drive.
 
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Gents, the TV will format your Hard Drive with a Linux file system that Windows will NOT recognize. You may be able to read your files on a Linux machine.
 
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Samsung Smart TV's will read files on a HDD formatted as FAT32 or NTFS, which is my preferred choice for larger file transfers. I run Macs and with Tuxera software can read/write all Windows formatted drives. Files play seamlessly using a portable HDD formatted in NTFS for me.
Things you must consider are:
The file extension; The TV will play all mp4 files as long as the .extension is .mp4. It will not read iTunes protected .m4v files or other protected files.
If the files are in .m4v (or any other mp4 compression, avi ,H264, etc., which are all mp4, then you only need to change the extension. No need to convert large amounts of files. There is software available to do this in batches. I have done this with 2 TB of files and all play fine.

USB Port on TV; Samsungs have 2 USB ports, one being specifically labelled for HDD, with the power to run portable hdd and be recognised by the system as a drive. The other USB port you use to run/charge peripherals.
I have run both portable and powered drives this way.

Recording from the TV is a different story. ; to record to an external drive the TV will need to format the drive in Linux. In which case all other data is lost. The format is either ext2, ext3 or ext4, quite old formats but used by Linux systems and able to (somehow) hold extra data.
You therefore can't have the same drive for playback and recording. choose one or the other.

Oh,... while Linux Reader might work on Windows, good luck finding an equivalent for Macs.
I am able to edit recordings made on the ext3 formatted drive but it is a long process and requires a Linux laptop, a Windows formatted drive, conversion software and a lot of patience.

Hope this helps a bit.
 
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AS I posted this I realised that it was not a major concern for me.
Samsung Smart TV's have some good Apps available these days. I know it depends on the year the tv was made, but a firmware update might help.
My 40" 2012 model updates regularly, and I have all that is needed.
I have a Seagate Central on my network and it handles all file formats I have thrown at it via the Seagate Media app. on the TV.( except iTunes protected of course).
The Plex app also works well on the Samsung,..requires some time to set up the client on your computer but once done works great. I have over 4Tb of media I am able to play on my TV with the Plex app.
Each app. I have assigned different duties, but both handle all .extensions fine.
For my itunes protected files I resort to the trusty Apple TV and iTunes.
 
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Oldguy65 - some useful info about Samsung smart TV's. I recorded the Eurovision 2015 event a few days ago on a USB 3 drive. That's when I learned Samsung uses Linux to format recording devices for the TV. I was able to read the USB stick from a Linux system running on a Linux bootable CD but what I want to do is make this recording editable on a Windows PC and to free up that USB 3 drive for other uses - what you don't know before you do your first recording on this TV can end up giving you headaches you weren't expecting. Any ideas of how to both convert the recording to a Windows recognizable app that can be used for editing it and also about copying the contents of the USB drive to say, an SD card or other media so I can both retain the ability to review the recording later and to free up my USB drive for other uses? thanks from an even older guy.
 
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I had the same problem (my thumb drive was no longer recognized by my PC after using it on Samsung Smart TV). I downloaded the Linux software mentioned in earlier post and it was able to open and save the files from the thumb drive to my computer. I then re-formatted the thumb drive and transferred the files back to it and now it's working fine.

A few questions I'd love to get answered:
How did my TV reformat this thumb drive to Linux in the first place?
Why did it happen only on this thumb drive and not the two others I've also used on the same TV?

Thanks!
 
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I purchased this tv a few weeks ago, no problems watching movies from my HDD for the first 2 weeks, then we stopped a movie half way through, came back to watch it and now it says "no content". I haven't plugged it back into the PC yet but am scared I've lost all my data and photos. Has anyone else had their HDD suddenly appear empty?
 
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This is due to drive security configuration change made by TV. I also had similar issue and below steps helped me to get all my data both on TV & PC.

1. right click on my computer, choose manage, then Storage > Disk Management
2. Choose your disk (example I:) , right click and choose properties
3. Choose Security tab, click Advanced
4. Click "change", then "advanced" button
5. Add "Everyone" if it doesn't exists
6. Give full access to everyone

 
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THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME 🙁 Is their a fix?!?!?

I plugged my 1TB drive into my 2016 UHD 55" tv and it didn't show any files, just the folder structure, and when I went to plug the USB into my computer, the partion with all my videos doesn't show up.

My tv doesn't show the USB either now..?
 
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THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME 🙁 Is their a fix?!?!?

I plugged my 1TB drive into my 2016 UHD 55" tv and it didn't show any files, just the folder structure, and when I went to plug the USB into my computer, the partion with all my videos doesn't show up.

My tv doesn't show the USB either now..?
 
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