External HDD not show up in my computer (Not Initialised and Unknown)

Niall556 · 24 Mar 2015

Hi, my 1tb external hard drive cannot be found in 'my computer'. It can however be found in diskpart, disk managerment, and disk manager, though it does not have a drive letter, shows as unknown and is not and wont initialize. I also get a crc error when trying to do anything with it. There is no data on the drive so i dont need to recover anything, just wanted to know if there is any way that I can use it again? Here are some screenshot I have taken.

AddRAM · 24 Mar 2015

It`s showing in Diskpart so.....

Have you tried using Diskpart to set it up ?

Just look up the Diskpart tutorial, it will show you how to do it.

Why is F marked active ? Do you have an operating system on it ?

Is it an external drive ?

If not, it should not be marked active.

CKWD · 25 Mar 2015

Hello Niall556!

To try and initialize the drive through diskpart follow these:

1. Open the Start Menu, type cmd.exe, press Enter
2. Type diskpart, press Enter
3. Type list disk, press Enter
4. Type select disk X (where X is the number the certain drive), press Enter
5. Type clean, press Enter
6. Type create partition primary, press Enter
7. Type format quick fs=ntfs, press Enter
8. Type assign letter Y, where Y is the letter you'd choose, press Enter
9. Type exit, press Enter

Hope this helps!

Good luck! :)

CK_WD

Niall556 · 25 Mar 2015

CKWD said:

Hello Niall556!

To try and initialize the drive through diskpart follow these:

1. Open the Start Menu, type cmd.exe, press Enter
2. Type diskpart, press Enter
3. Type list disk, press Enter
4. Type select disk X (where X is the number the certain drive), press Enter
5. Type clean, press Enter
6. Type create partition primary, press Enter
7. Type format quick fs=ntfs, press Enter
8. Type assign letter Y, where Y is the letter you'd choose, press Enter
9. Type exit, press Enter

Hope this helps!

Good luck! :)

CK_WD

I have already tried this but cant create the partition because of the crc error

CKWD · 25 Mar 2015

That's interesting.

A Cyclic Redundancy Error (CRC) is and error checking technique used by computers, specifically the hard drives and optical disks. It's caused when data on the hard drive becomes corrupt.

So if there really isn't a byte of information on your drive it may be a left over of something deleted or the partition table or file system broke.

If it's visible everywhere you say, try chkdsk:

1. Type cmd in the search bar on the Start menu
2. You must run as Admin
3. Type chkdsk x: /f, where x: is your drive, the /f command will fix errors found on the disk

If this doesn't help you to Initialize it later on, try wiping it clean, by writing full zeros. You could research and use a third party program that does that. Do this if only there is really nothing on the drive!

Hope this helps!

CK_WD

Niall556 · 25 Mar 2015

CKWD said:

That's interesting.

A Cyclic Redundancy Error (CRC) is and error checking technique used by computers, specifically the hard drives and optical disks. It's caused when data on the hard drive becomes corrupt.

So if there really isn't a byte of information on your drive it may be a left over of something deleted or the partition table or file system broke.

If it's visible everywhere you say, try chkdsk:

1. Type cmd in the search bar on the Start menu
2. You must run as Admin
3. Type chkdsk x: /f, where x: is your drive, the /f command will fix errors found on the disk

If this doesn't help you to Initialize it later on, try wiping it clean, by writing full zeros. You could research and use a third party program that does that. Do this if only there is really nothing on the drive!

Hope this helps!

CK_WD

I cant do this as the there is no drive letter assigned to hard drive

AddRAM · 25 Mar 2015

Get on the phone to the manufacturer, if they can not help you, demand an exchange. Hard drives have warranties.

As a last resort before that, try Partition Wizard if you already haven`t.

Free Partition Manager for Window PC | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition

Or EaseUS Partition Master

Free Partition Magic alternative and Partition Manager Freeware for Windows XP/Vista/7/8.

Niall556 · 25 Mar 2015

its out of warrenty and ive tried that with a few programs, thanks for your help anyway :)

AddRAM · 25 Mar 2015

Looks like you`ll be buying a new drive for the enclosure then :)

Get a 500 TB

A 500 TB hard drive LOL, could you imagine

CKWD · 26 Mar 2015

I have distracted, I am sorry, I suppose it could happen.

Well, like AddRAM said, you will have to get a new drive. Or you could go to a professional to see if he can fix the drive with the certain tools in the certain environment.

I am sorry if we couldn't do more. Good luck! :)

CK_WD