How do I see phone as a drive on my PC?

[tdesnoyers]

My phone completely reset itself today and the Verizon Cloud backup has none of my data.  Before this happened, my phone showed up as a USB Mass Storage Device and was automatically assigned a drive letter on my laptop, and now that it has reset itself it will only show up as a portable device.  I need it to show up as a drive under My Computer in able to have a hope in hell of recovering any of my data.  I have been trying everything I can think of for hours and cannot get it back the way it was.  Does anyone have any idea on this?  Verizon has been useless as usual.

[vzw_customer_support]

Being able to protect the data on your phone is definitely important tdesnoyers so I understand your concern.  What happens when you connect your phone to your computer? What data are you trying to save? Is the data saved on your computer?  Have you tried transferring files using Media Transfer Protocol http://vz.to/1NY15ig?

JohnB_VZW
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[tdesnoyers]

I have the phone set up as a Media Device (MTP) and I can see it from my PC as a mobile device.  The problem is that I need to see it as an assigned drive, like a Mass Storage Device, so that my scanning software can search for recoverable files.  I know that they don't officially have an MSD setting anymore, but I had it set up to do this before the stupid thing reset itself.  I am connecting to the same computer with the same cable that I always do, but it does not map as a drive anymore and I have not been able to make it do this.  I really don't want to do any system updates and overwrite any more data that may be recoverable.  I know it's a long shot but I hate to just give up on nearly 2 years of data that was supposed to be backed up and apparently wasn't.

This is my other MAJOR concern, that I set up all of my images, videos and files to backup to the Verizon Cloud.  When I tried to restore everything after it reset itself, there was NOTHING there.  What is the point of having the cloud backup and paying all the money I pay to Verizon if the basics don't work.

[vzw_customer_support]

Tdesnoyers

I would be lost if my data on my phone were to be gone. It sounds like you are trying to use specialized third-party tools to recover “missing” files from the memory of the phone itself. Our tools are limited and if the computer is detecting the device as a “mobile device”, that is as far as our support allows to go. I would recommend reaching out to the manufacturer directly to see about changing the phone to be assigned its own drive letter.

As far as your Verizon Cloud, when you log into your online account for this line, what is showing? Does it list anything at all? How did you try to restore your data on the phone?

ChristopherM_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[tdesnoyers]

I'm not lost, I'm extremely ticked off (and that is putting it nicely).  I am trying to use NTFS Undelete to scan the internal memory, but I can only do it if the internal memory shows up as an assigned drive.  When I first got it 18 months or so ago I was able to set it up to do this so that every time I connected to my computer it showed up with the next available drive letter.  Since it reset itself, it will not connect the same way even though I am using the same computer, cable, and USB port.  I am now trying to connect with the factory Samsung USB cable via a USB3.0 port on my computer, but it will not give me the option to connect via USB3.0 on the device, only MTP and PTP.  I have also tried other 3rd party recovery options but nothing will access the internal memory since the Android platform has blocked rooting the devices.

When I look at the Verizon cloud from both the phone and laptop it shows contacts and one MP3 file that was on the phone from the manufacturer, but nothing else.  I also had this set to back up to my Google account as a redundant measure and that account is also empty except for the contacts.  I took the device to the Verizon store I got it from and they were not able to do anything except to say a halfhearted "sorry you lost everything, come back when you're ready to upgrade".

Researching this issue the evidence looks like the phone went into an automatic recovery.  It appears that it backed up my contacts immediately before it did a factory reset on itself, but none of my files were there.  This looks to be what the Recovery Assistant does from what I have found, but I have never used it.  It almost looks like when it went rouge it somehow wiped both my cloud data backups when it backed up my contacts, then wiped and reset itself.  I have no idea how it would have done it, but stranger things have happened.

[vzw_customer_support]

Tdesnoyers

I know how important this is for you. The only information we have is on how to set the device up to be recognized by the computer for Media sharing purposes. From what you have described, the computer has been able to detect the device in this way. I would recommend reaching out to the manufacturer directly for additional assistance as we do not have resources on how to have your computer assign a drive letter for the phone.

When you checked your Verizon Cloud online, was there anything in the deleted folder? Have you ever checked prior to today to see if your files were backed up?

ChristopherM_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[tdesnoyers]

The deleted folder contains contacts that I deleted over a year ago but nothing else.  I had not logged directly into the cloud services until now.  All of my backup reports stated that everything completed properly, my fault for believing the reports and that the services were working they way they claimed they were I guess.