Windows 7 - External Hard drive problem

SUCCESSOR · 08-24-2011

I have a 2.5 sata 250gb hard drive from a laptop with a broken screen. I bought a enclosure for it so I could use it as a external hard drive. During the process of backing up and clean up I apparantly deleted something important because it started saying the drives (the hard drive has a recovery partition) need to be formatted. Any attempt to format either partition fails. I tried partitioning to FAT32 in command prompt but it said 'cannot open volume for direct access'.

The only thing it does when I plug it in is pop up that the drive need to be formatted over and over and the drives won't show up in disk manager.

How can i get it formtted?

Hard drive still working with my Nintendo Wii. I don't know why it isn't working with windows.

Britton30 · 08-24-2011

Welcome to Seven Forums SUCCESSOR.

I've read your post several times and am more confused. Are you dealing with only the 2.5" drive from the laptop in an enclosure? You refer to drives.
How does the enclosure attach? Does it show up in Explorer (Computer)?
In back up and clean up do you mean you were trying to recover data from the 2.5" enclosed drive or...?

SUCCESSOR · 08-25-2011

Sorry drives i meant partitions. It's a 2.5 sata from a laptop in a USB 2.0 enclosure. it has a 10 gb recovery partition and showed up as "drives K and L" in windows. I left the recovery partition alone incase i ever needed to use the laptop for anything(broken display but still works with external moniter). I was removing thing from that drive to make room for media as I intend to use the drive for my Xbox and Wii. I was also organizing pictures and such that I wanted to keep. I guess my bad habit of storing random crap on the root of the drive caught up with me as I was deleting something I didn't need and apparantly deleted something important unintentionally. I figured the worst I could do was make it so Windows wouldn't boot off the drive but apparantly was quite wrong.

Anyway basics.
-2.5" Sata on USB enclosure
-Deleted something off "k"
-Partitions "K" & "L" stopped being accessible
- Windows prompted that they must be formatted
-Troubleshooted and got nowhere
-Attempted to formatt both partitions through prompts and failed
-Attempted to locate partitions in disk manager but they did not appear
-Attempted to format "K" through Command Prompt and got error 'cannot open volume for direct access'
-I repeat I did not touch partition "L"

asked for help and since plugged the Hard drive into my Nintendo Wii and it works fine from there. I have WiiXplorer installed so I can view the files and play media off it.

I want to either fix it so I don't have to lose Windows as I don't have the disk and dont like buying a replacement or format it if necesary. I thought salvaging the files was hopeless till I saw it workin on my Wii.

mrdemon · 08-25-2011

If you have no Luck with the Computer getting to it try FTPii on the Wii, you may be able too get them Via your network.

On the PC side Run a scan disk on it. If no joy Goto My Computer and Manage the drop down too Drive management and see if you can assign a drive letter.

karlsnooks · 08-25-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by SUCCESSOR

I have a 2.5 sata 250gb hard drive from a laptop with a broken screen. I bought a enclosure for it so I could use it as a external hard drive. During the process of backing up and clean up I apparantly deleted something important because it started saying the drives (the hard drive has a recovery partition) need to be formatted. Any attempt to format either partition fails. I tried partitioning to FAT32 in command prompt but it said 'cannot open volume for direct access'.

The only thing it does when I plug it in is pop up that the drive need to be formatted over and over and the drives won't show up in disk manager.

How can i get it formtted?

Hard drive still working with my Nintendo Wii. I don't know why it isn't working with windows.

Here is how you format that thing.

Step 1: Disconnect the drive from your laptop.
Step 2: Create a System Repair Disc
Step 3. Reconnect the drive
Step 4: Boot to the System Repair Disc
Step 5: Go to a command prompt
Step 6: Use DiskPart to make changes to partitions including formatting the partitions.
Step 7. Boot your laptop backup like normal.
Step 8. Let us know the status.

Now I'm including the "canned" info you will need.

CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
===============================================

Code:

 GO TO A COMMAND PROMPT USING A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

  1) Insert System Repair Disc into optical reader.
  2) Shutdown computer.
  3) Boot up computer from the System Repair Disc 
If your computer doesn’t boot from the optical drive, then 
Immediately after pushing your Power ON button,
start tapping the F2 key to get to the BIOS to change the boot order

On some computers, Immediately after pushing the Power ON button, start tapping the F12 key and choose CD/DVD to change the boot order only for this time.
  4) Wait while a mini-version of Windows is loaded and finally the SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS dialog appears.
  5) NEXT | SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS dialog 
will search your system for installed versions of Windows.
  6) select the Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows radio button |
  7) NEXT | Choose Command Prompt
   
  Run desired commands and type EXIT when finished.
  Remove the System Repair Disc.
  Shutdown computer.
  Power on computer.

===============================================
===============================================

Quote:

PREPARE A DISK OR A USB FLASH DRIVE FOR USE

Run CMD.EXE as an Administrator

Enter following commands, each followed by hitting ENTER:
· DiskPart
· List disk (lists disks in your system)
· Select disk <numeral> (without the < and the >)
· Detail disk (info should let you know if you selected correctly)
· Clean ALL (your entire disk is being overwritten with zeros.
This can take a considerable amount of time. Leave off the ALL for a much shorter clean which only cleans the boot sectors)
· CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY(create a primary partition)
· FORMAT FS=NTFS(format the partition)
· ACTIVE(the partition can contain operating system startup files)
· ASSIGN (the next available letter is assigned to disk)
or
ASSIGN Letter=X (Assign X as drive letter. Use the letter of your choice)
· EXIT (only type after Clean is finished. Exits from DiskPart)
· EXIT (this exits from the command shell)

=============================================
==============================================

SUCCESSOR · 08-25-2011

I am losing my access to a computer. I have no vga cord for my laptop ATM. So as it is workking on the wii and there are work arounds to add/remove files I am going to put this problem on hold. When I revisit this problem I will probably bump the topic if I need some more help. I am saving the information you guys gave me. Thank you very much.

Sorry I couldn't follow through to a solution.

Britton30 · 08-25-2011

OK, thanks for letting us know.

You can mark this solved at the bottom of your first post. You can later mark it Unsolved or start a new thread if you want to later.

Windows 7 - External Hard drive problem

External Hard drive problem problems?