I have a Samsung portable SSD and can't open

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Solution 1

Samsung's proprietary software appears to be only for encryption. You won't be able to access any encrypted files on the drive from Linux since Samsung doesn't support that.

  • If the drive is encrypted and you don't have any (valuable) data on the drive or moved it somewhere else (temporarily), you can repartition, reformat and use the SSD in Linux without additional software.

  • If the drive is not encrypted you should be able to use it in Ubuntu right away or at least after installing the exfat-fuse package. If you can't, please edit your question or open a new question and include the output of lsusb, sudo lsblk -f and a screenshot of the drive as seen by GParted.

If you want to encrypt your data on Linux (or any operating system really), it's always better to opt for vendor-independent, non-proprietary solutions. Popular examples for disk encryption system on Linux are

  • LUKS (Linux and BSD with cryptsetup, Windows with LibreCrypt (beta), OS X only through Linux guest system) and

  • TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt (Linux, BSD with cryptsetup, Windows, OS X).

Solution 2

I found a workaround, not a solution. But it works fine for me.

  1. Connect the SSD to a USB-Hub with external power supply.
  2. Connect the USB-Hub to a windows computer
  3. Start the samsung SSD encryption tool in windows as usual. The encrypted partition will be visible.
  4. Disconnect the USB-Hub ONLY from the windows computer, leaving the SSD connected to the power provided by the hub.
  5. Connect the Hub to your Linux-System.
  6. Done - the encrypted partition is visible!
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Jared Y
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Jared Y

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

  • Jared Y
    Jared Y about 1 year

    My laptop right now runs Ubuntu Kylin, and has no Windows on it after accidentally wiping it when I updated the Ubuntu version. I'm trying to access a SSD from Samsung that used to work fine with windows.There's an .exe file to activate it.. However, right now I can't seem to get the file to open. It opens briefly and then closes. I've tried installing exfat-utils which I read somewhere solved other people's problems, but still I'm having no relief to my issue. I've tried using Wine, but I'm unfamiliar and can't get that to operate properly either.

    • Jared Y
      Jared Y about 7 years
      It's an SSD. I'm trying to run this .exe so that I can use it as a portable HD. It has 1TB, but it won't run right now since I'm stuck with Ubuntu. Is it possible to somehow open this program so that I can use the files inside? I think the encryption technology might be making it more difficult.
    • Admin
      Admin about 7 years
      If it's a Windows proprietary encryption software then you need Windows. Anyway, and again, what .exe? What software is that?
    • Admin
      Admin about 7 years
      Yes, I already know that. I asked again what app is that, what name, etc... I doesn't matter that much anyway because, again, you need Windows. It's NOT the "Linux OS" that's making it hard, it's the manufacturer or whoever decided to use a Windows proprietary software for that.
    • Jared Y
      Jared Y about 7 years
      Not sure...the file that I want is called Samsung Portable SSD.exe, and there's a folder called Samsung Portable SSD.app that doesn't necessarily lead anywhere.
    • Admin
      Admin about 7 years
      samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/portable.htm‌​l <- As you can see Samsung supports Windows and MacOS only.
  • Jared Y
    Jared Y about 7 years
  • David Foerster
    David Foerster about 7 years
    Could you please edit your question if you want to add or clarify something? The comment section is not suitable or meant for follow-up Q&A or extended discussion. I also need the output of lsusb. Thanks.