My PC is a Samsung R620. It was a Vista PC until I had it serviced and it was upgraded to Windows 7. (I have Microsoft Essentials Protection installed to clean and fight viruses)
Nine months ago I bought a SAMSUNG M2 Portable External Hard Drive 750GB (USB 2.0). It has come to my notice that these removable media drives can be very vulnerable to virus and bugs affecting them. I am extremely worried about this. My portable drive is about 1/3 full of video movies in the FLV and MP4 file types. I have hundreds of movies stored. I want to guarantee that they will remain safe and preserve for, hopefully, many decades to come. If virus attacks these portable drives they can clam up. Then I think one starts getting messages like, this drive is "Not Formatted". I want to be ahead of such problems and do all I can to be sure no harm comes to my files, long term. At this moment my drive is working fine. Prevention though is better than cure. I handle the drive very sparingly. I always unplug it from my PC when not in use. I keep it dust free and at room temperature.
What can be done to ensure longevity, safety to the drive and its contents? I am wondering if there is a (Freeware) anti-virus software which could be installed in my PC and use to scan the drive on a regular basis to effectively remove all problems? I have heard of a recovery program called Recuva which is supposed to extract files from a portable drive which has clamped up. I don't know if it would help or how long it would take to transfer only a few files at a time to my main PC with 500GB hard drive. It has always been my intention to work on only a few files at a time and transfer them to DVD, over a period of many years. Can you advice me on any of the recovery software?
I would be very grateful if you could give me expert advice on what is best to do. My video collection is priceless to me and I want only the best to ensure its longevity.
