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External Hard Drive will not let me reformat it any way I try
I'm having problems with my external hard drive (1 TB, pocket western digital) where
the hard drive shows up (with no indication of space left) and I'm not able to view any files or even get to a point where I can reformat it.
Here are my observations (hopefully you guys know the problem and can help me fix it):
When I insert it into my Windows 7 pc, it will show up in the following places:
My Computer (as drive F: with no file space bar underneath)
My Devices and Printers (recognized as a hard drive but needs troubleshooting)
The USB icon in the task bar comes up and recognizes something was inserted (along with the sound).
When I click on that hard drive to view files in My Computer, it loads for an insanely long time. The green loading bar at the top loads all the way until it reaches the middle of the button at the end so I'd say it loads 97% before it stops making any more progress.
When right click on my computer and click on "Manage" to get into Disk Management, the Disk Management never loads and only says "Connecting to Virtual Disk service" in the notification bar at the bottom.
When I right click on the hard drive under Devices and Printers to troubleshoot it, it will take a long time to even load up the right click menu for me troubleshoot it.
I also noticed that my computer lags when I insert the external hard drive to the point where Google Chrome doesn't respond and sometimes Windows Explorer doesn't respond.
I have tried inserting the external HD to other windows computers with no luck. I did noticed that it works on a Mac and Ubuntu but really slow again.
I have never formatted this hard drive; I just started using it from day one adding files to it.
There was one time when I was able to get the hard drive to load...only when I copied all the files on to my desktop the file transfer rate was about 50KB/s and I had over 200 GB worth to transfer...the normal transfer rate on this external should be around 10-15 MB/s.
I also tried inserting the external HD, opened up the command prompt, and tried to start testdisk. But afterwards testkdisk never loaded up and I wasn't able to enter anything else in the command prompt so I just exited out of that.
As soon as I disconnect the external hard drive from my computer, everything goes back to normal...Google Chromes load faster, Disk Management shows my HDDs, etc...
On the hard drive itself, there is a blinking light. This light never used to blick and was completely solid when it was working fine.
Whenever I take out the hard drive from the usb slot, a window pops up saying that I need to reformat it with a button at the bottom that enable me to reformat. However, I already took out the hard drive so clicking that button will do no good. I'd have to reinsert it into the computer, wait a really long time for nothing to happen and as soon as I take out the external, the reformat will pop up again.
Hopefully you guys know a way for me to fix this. I really, really appreciate the help. Thanks!
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