I missed this part of your last reply. If the drive is showing up in Windows Disk Management and it's a healthy drive, then go ahead and format the drive in Windows Disk Management. If Windows can format the drive then by all means allow it to. It's a good practice to use Windows' native features if at all possible.
So how did it go, Pooky? Let us know if you got everything squared away, Bro.
Well, it still refuses to format even after following Britton30 advise and did the "Clean All". Then I did the simple volume and told it to format. The message said it was unable to complete the format. So now it is RAW, Healthy, but not formatted, again.
I was waiting on you to create a backup of the drive before we went any further. If you already made a backup, formatting it will be a breeze. Did you already download and burn the ISO for "The Ultimate Boot Disc?" If not, you can download the ISO image from my own server.
The Ultimate Boot Disc
Let me know when you get the drive backed up, and the ISO image burned, and we'll go from there.
You can try this method but use the Lucid Puppy iso.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ml#post2121339
I'm sorry about that, I got you confused with another guy I'm helping out. Doh!!!
If you have a Windows installation disc, you can simply use that without having to download any additional formatting tools. Just boot from your installation disc, and when it asks you where you want to install Windows, highlight the trouble drive and then click on the "delete" button. This will delete the corrupted partition. You may have to click on an "Advanced" button when it asks you to choose an installation partition.
On the other hand, if you know how to burn bootable ISO images, then go ahead and create "The Ultimate Boot Disc." Not only does it have excellent HDD tools, it has just about everything you can think of in the way of diagnostic software. They all run in DOS too, which is really important if you cannot boot into a Windows environment. It really is the only bootable diagnostic disc you will ever need.
To boot from the pen drive you have to enter the onetime boot menu when the bios starts and select the USB drive. ( On my computer I hit F12 to bring the boot menu. The key may be different for your computer but that is usually indicated on the first bios screen.)
Or
You have to enter the bios settings , boot priority and select the USB device as the first boot device.
Are you doing that?
Creating a bootable pendrive with Rufus itself is very easy as shown in the screenshot.
Leave everything to its default settings. Only check that the correct pendrive is selected.
Just select ISO image in the dropdown menu, hit the drive icon next to it, select the ISO and hit Start.
If you have any problems, you should come back and let us know what exactly is the problem so that we can help you.
And both PepperMint3 and/or my Windows installation disc will work for my external HDD?
I don't have any experience with PepperMint3, but your Windows installation disc should work just fine. I've performed that operation dozens of times on drives that were presumed dead, but in reality, only had a corrupt partition, or a few bad sectors. Many hard drives get thrown in the trash without any physical damage done to them at all. It is almost always a software problem [like corrupt firmware, corrupt drivers, or a corrupt file system]. Hard drives can, and do fail because of physical problems, but believe it or not, it is actually pretty rare.
Quote