NP900X4C "Hotkey utility missing a driver" error and HDD won't connect

'Your hotkey utility is missing a driver' suddenly came up flagged on my Samsung NP900X4C and now my hard drive doesn't work properly when I connect it. Can someone pls tell me where I can find the download? I read a thread that said to go to settings and reinstall it but could someone be more specific...i.e. where do I find settings

Also, could someone tell me where I can post a new thread. I'm replying on this thread cos I couldn't see a way to post a new one. Thanks

 

Hello Melanie, welcome to NBR.

(I took the liberty of moving your post to a new thread, which hopefully will give it more visibility. In the future, just click the blue "Post New Thread" button at the bottom of the page to create a new thread.)

That could be nasty: The "Hotkey utility missing a driver" error message alone could just be a problem with the Settings utility (assuming you use Win8, Easy Settings if you use Win7). But if it came out of the blue, and at the same time your external harddrive won't work (how I understand you) those could be signs of some corruption of system files, caused either by a defect in the SSD, by malware, or some driver software failure.

I don't want to cause unnecessary fear. It is possible that a simple Restart will fix it.

But just in case, I would say priority number one should be to backup your data. If I were in your situation, I would boot a LiveCD/LiveUSB (I have one specifically for such situations) and use that to backup all data.

If that is not an option for you, then booting Recovery (F4 immediately after Power On) is a possibility and performing a Recovery from there -- if you never backed up in Recovery, it will take you back to factory state. There is an option to preserve user data. See this Samsung guide.

 

Thanks so much. I backed up all my data (thx for the tip re liveusb!) because a simple restart didn't cause the flagged issue to disappear...but then when I restarted my laptop the second time, the issue wasn't there in the flagged section any longer. And my hard drive works now. So strange! Not complaining mind you...but some things are just weird!

Thanks so much for your thorough explanation and help. Very much appreciated.

Mel