Unable to access or format external hard drives

[qcddoc2012]

I have 2 ADATA 500 GB external hard drives. I plugged them into the USB port and the computer recognized them by name and installed the driver files. It assigned both of them a drive letter but then gave me a message saying that they needed to be formatted. I clicked ok since they are brand new drives and do not have any data on them, but the format failed to complete on both drives. I took both drives to another PC running Windows Vista and they were recognized and accessible. I even transferred a few files to them for testing purposes; however, when I plugged them back into my Alienware laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, then I got the same error. If I go to the disk manager, then I can see the drives by their drive letter and they are listed as healthy with a primary partition but the file format shows as RAW. I tried to use the device manager and uninstall the USB Mass Storage Device drivers for each drive and then I unplugged them and plugged them in again and I would get a device driver installation message that identifies the drives by name and tells me that the device drivers were installed correctly and that my devices are ready for use but then a few minutes later I will get a message telling me to format the drives. Please help. I've run out of things to try. I can still access my iPhone via USB and my USB wireless mouse still works so I know my USB ports are good.

 

[matts6887]

Try this link and see it helps ya any:

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/226218-windows-unable-format-external-hard-drive.html

 

[jumanji]

Welcome to SevenForums, Professor.

Vista can read the two AData drives but your Windows 7 PC only shows them RAW and format fails. Strange.

You said some other USB devices like iphone look OK on your PC.

But what I would like to know is what happens when you plug in any other USB HDD/pen drive. Do those read and write OK?

EDIT: It is hard for me to believe that RAW drives had a drive letter assigned. Can you please post a screenshot of Windows 7 Disk Management with the two AData HDDs plugged-in?

 

[qcddoc2012]

matts6887: I tried the link that you provided and got a couple different things to try such as; downloading and using Partition Wizard and using Windows DiskPart command. I opted for the latter because its free and already a part of my Windows tool kit.

jumanji: Yes sir, I have several external hard drives That I keep for backup and other stuff and they all still work with my Windows 7 laptop. The only problem that I'm having is with these ADATA drives.

Here is the real kick in the teeth: I took this screenshot right now. I have already ran diskpart on the external hard drive which allowed me to format it with a file system of NTFS and a label called "red". The next two screenshots are from my Vista laptop with the red drive. One is from the disk management and the other is a screenshot showing where I had copied some pictures to the drive. I still cannot open this drive with my Windows 7 laptop.

 

[jumanji]

That beats me anyway.

Now just plug-in only the two AData drives to your Windows 7 PC ( remove all other USB storage drives) and post the Windows Disk Management Screenshot. (Please go to the toolbar, click on Show/Hide Console Tree, Show/hide Action Panel to hide those so that we can get a full screen view.)

Once you had taken this screenshot to post, do the following.

Of course now I am going to shoot in the dark , but based solely on some user reports.

Download AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard directly from the author's website Free Partition Manager - AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard - that will take you to cnet - install and run with both the drives plugged in.

"Though the app will reformat and / or partition your drive, the first step is to select the external drive in question and then select Properties. It is our mutual experience that this is often enough to get the drive recognized by Windows.

Another approach is to use the following Fix It troubleshooter, here: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Windows_USB_diagnostics .

Try these approaches and let me know if this fixes the issue for you."

Yep, I have merely copied and pasted from one of the latest posts in Microsoft Community.

Let us know what happens.

 

[Slartybart]

Follow jumanji's suggestions first, then
if the issue is still not not resolved...

I'm referring to the two new drives, so no backup is required - right?
I'd like you to use diskpart and put the drive in an uninitialized state. Then disconnect the drive gracefully

As a matter of fact, disconnect all USB devices except those you need (mouse, keyboard) - if you get by without those (if you have them) - disconnect those devices al well.

Remove the disc from the OD.

There are a few things I see in the Win7 Disk Management screenshot.
I'm not familiar with Toshiba disk partitioning, but I'll echo the disk/parts as I read them



Disk 0:

• part 1 -> OEM [39 MB]
• part 2 -> RECOVERY (System, Active, Primary) [14.11 GB]
• Part 3 -> OS (Boot, Page, Crash, Primary) [462.789 GB]

Disk 1:

• part 1 -> Unallocated [101 MB] --- looks like a system part
• part 2 -> Toshiba Ext (Active, Primary)

Disk 2:

• part 1 -> RAW [465.76 GB]

Please fill in your system specs so members can easily reference your system: System Specs (see How to - System Specs).
I'd like to see a Device Manager (DevMgr) screen shot(s) showing View->Show hidden devices, but
before opening DevMgr I want you to add an environment variable to your user profile

devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
​

with a value of

1
​

Once the variable is set, Open DevMgr, View->Show hidden devices and expand the following:

• Disk drives
• Storage volume shadow copies
• Storage Volumes
• Universal Serial Bus controllers

post the information shown in the screenshot(s).

Follow this tutorial and post a new Disk Management screenshot: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html
At this stage I expect to only see Disk 0 - no other drives connected.

Bill
.

 

[qcddoc2012]

Jumanji: I have provided the screenshot that you requested sir. I also followed your instructions and downloaded AOMEI and provided screenshots showing where I accessed both drives. The drive labled red is the only drive that I used diskpart on and actually performed a format to NTFS. I haven't done anything to the second drive. I thought that I should concentrate on getting at least one drive going first and then trying to get the second one once I succeeded with the first.

Slartybart: I don't know how to add an environment variable to my user profile, but I did go ahead and post a screenshot of my device manager. I couldn't get the entire list in one screenshot but I did cover the expanded areas that you requested.

 

[jumanji]

OK, the drive you formatted with diskpart labelled red does show up in AOMEI PA as having the file system NTFS and also shows the used space ( the files you copied) but still without a drive letter. Windows however does not recognise any and shows as RAW.

The drive you left in virgin state, shows as unformatted but with a drive letter E in AOMEI PA and shows as drive E and RAW in Windows Disk Management.

Let us see what Slartybart has to say about it. My analytical skills have stopped dead .

I would think our strategy now should be to deal with just one drive - the one you still left in virgin state - and make it recognisable with Windows 7, by whatever means.

If Slartybart's idea is to see the non-present devices - yes, non-present devices that had already been assigned a drive letter but continue to be present in Windows list without releasing the drive letters - that may confuse the Windows, I do have an alternate plan to do the drive cleanup but as I said I shall wait for Slartybart.

( In the meanwhile you can prepare yourself to do that http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/315247-nagging-non-existant-drive.html#post2626259. Even if you go ahead with it without waiting for Slartybart, there is no harm since a periodical drive cleanup is a recommended practice especially when one keeps on plugging-in and out various USB drives but I want you to wait so that we do not pull in different directions.)

EDIT: You haven't said anything about trying http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Windows_USB_diagnostics. Did you try it?

 

[Slartybart]

qcddoc2012 & jumanji

I'll wait until this is answered:
EDIT: You haven't said anything about trying http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Wi...SB_diagnostics. Did you try it?

Then I'll work back off of post 6.
It's easy to add an enviroment varialbe, I'll walk you thru that.
Then clean one of the troublesome drives

I want to get Disk Management showing only the C: drive (Disk 0) and then clean up ghosts n DevMgr
Then connect the uninitialized drive to Win7
Use Disk Manager to inialize to MBR and format NTFS
(might have to initialize in Diskpart, I forget)

and go from there.

That's what I had in mind... but first about the MS Fixit (Mats) - did you run it and did it have any affect?

Bill
.

 

[qcddoc2012]

Thank you gentlemen I appreciate all of your help. I did try the Microsoft fixit link. However, when I posted I had used my limit of attaching snapshot posts so I left it out. I went to the link and ran the fixit application but it failed to run because the error message said the troubleshooter was invalid or that it might have expired. I attached that snapshot to this post.

 

[qcddoc2012]

One more thing sirs, I did fill in my system specifications for you to look at but I will also list them here too:
Alienware M18XR2
OS: windows 7 ultimate x64
CPU: Intel Core i7-3920XM
Graphics: Dual GeForce GTX 680M with SLI enabled
RAM: 16GB

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks for updating your System Specs.

re: MS Fixit
Try downloading the offline version of the mats:
Advanced Download to run .... link on this page (below the green Run now button)
or
Direct download

See if that is enough to fix the issue. Otherwise you can go with the plan I set in post 6.

If jumanji wants to go down a path already started, my stuff will wait.

Bill
.

 

[jumanji]

1. Yep, once you download the above link and execute to save it in a folder of your choice, double click on the Launch Fix it. exe, you will find USB fix on page 3 to run it.



If it does not fix the problem then go ahead with drive clean up. I presume that is what Slartybart wants to tutor, but using the software, you can do it without any tutoring.

Download v 0.8.1 of the drivecleanup.zip from Drive Tools for Windows.

Unzip it to a folder, say drivecleanup.

You will have two folders Win32 and x64 each containing DriveCleanup.exe for 32 bit and 64 bit respectively.

Remove all USB storage devices from your system (except your Keyboard and mouse) and reboot.

Right click on the DriveCleanup.exe and run as administrator. (Use the *.exe file appropriate for your bit version of Windows. In your case the one in X64 folder).

On completion of the run you will get a screen like this. Take a screenshot and post. ( I have run it just now. I do run it periodically. So no harm. )



After the clean up act, reboot. Plug in your problem drive and check whether it is recognised.

( When you plug in your USB devices after this cleanup these will be installed afresh. What you have done is to remove all non-present devices and drive letters associated with them and start with a clean slate. .)

I shall retire for the day for Slartybart to continue with his shots.

 

[Slartybart]

jumanji: I always learn something from you - it's great!

MS fixit: I provided the link, but expected it to run the one Fixit. It looks as though it contains or links to many Fixits. Very cool.

DriveCleanup: This will save me a lot of typing.
Download v 0.8.1 of the drivecleanup.zip from Drive Tools for Windows.

I'll look at it to see if it can be or is applied to other ghost DevMgr entires.

One slight modification - I'd like to see the ext HD in an unitialized state (maybe RAW is that state - I do this so infrequently that I'm not certain if it's semantics or operations). Clean should set it to the state (whatever name) I'm looking as a starting point.

Then since Windows 7, but not Vista, has an issue with the drive - let Windows 7 manage the initialization, partitioning, and formatting.

I don't know if we're waiting for qcddoc2012 or if qcddoc2012 is waiting for us.

I think we're waiting for qcddoc2012 to report back on the MS fixit.

Bill
.

 

[qcddoc2012]

I apologize gentlemen. I am currently working as a contractor for the military in Afghanistan; therefore, I am 9 1/2 hours ahead of you guys.

I downloaded the fixit application and ran it and it didn't find anything. I posted a screenshot of the detailed results.

I downloaded and ran the drivecleanup application and posted a screenshot of the results.

I restarted the computer and I still have the same problem.

 

[jumanji]

Please post a screenshot of how this particular drive appears in Windows Vista Disk Management.(Please remove all other USB drives from that PC) Should we need to format it? Let us see.

Over to Slartybart to do whatever he wants.

 

[qcddoc2012]

I already posted those screenshots sir. My second post contains a screenshot of my windows 7 disk management and then a screenshot of my windows vista disk management and then a screenshot showing where I actually copied pictures onto the drive from my windows vista computer.

 

[jumanji]

You have two AData drives.

To avoid confusion we have said you keep away the one which you had formatted with diskpart and labelled "red" and we shall deal with just one drive - the one that still remains in its virgin state.

With this drive plugged-in you have performed the Microsoft Fix-it. Further as requested you have also carried out the drive clean up on your PC.

Now we are almost starting afresh with this one drive and so a fresh screenshot of it in Windows 7 PC and also on your Windows Vista PC will act as a reference point to track changes on any further processing that Slartybart may ask you to carry out. ( I have finished with what I wanted to do and it hasn't brought any results and will come in only if some other ideas flash in my mind.) Slartybart may also ask you for any further info/screenshots.

 

[qcddoc2012]

Thanks guys for all of your help; however, at this time I don't care to continue. I am very busy over here in Afghanistan with the war effort. These drives mean absolutely nothing to me. They belong to two different soldiers who wanted to get some movies off of me. I gave up and told them that they would have to get a different type of drive. They both got different drives and I have already transfered hundreds of movies to their new drives without any problems. Obviously neither of you are able to help solve this conundrum. Out of hundreds of other drives that I work with daily, these are the only two drives that have given me any problems. It no longer interests me to continue. Again, thank you for your time.

 

[jumanji]

It was quite obvious from the very beginning that there is something odd about this Adata drive. Works OK with Vista but not Windows 7. Problems of this nature which are out of the ordinary takes a prolonged time to resolve if at all and could be we may not be able to resolve also.

And yes, the easiest solution would have been to suggest getting rid of them and get new ones.

This of course we would have done in the beginning itself had you told that it does not belong to you and these mean nothing to you. Better late than never.

(When especially it is a new drive, I have in many cases asked the OPs to return it to the vendor and get a different brand drive instead of breaking one's head including ours . I was almost coming to that when you told that you are in Afghanistan where perhaps it would have been impossible.)

Anyway, glad that you got rid of them and freed yourself.

Slarty and me are also relieved.