Windows Unable to Format External Hard Drive

[Drspoon57]

Hi!

Simply as the title says, I was connecting my 1tb drive to my laptop when strangely it asks me to format my drive. I had assumed it had been disconnected improperly and decided to accept the loss and reformat.

However, once commanding the drive to format Windows soon brings up an error message.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dsperber]

What error message did you get when you ok'd the FORMAT?

Also, can you post a screenshot from DISKMGMT showing that external drive? Full-screen please, with columns spread to show the contents of the columns.

Has this drive been used successfully before, and all of a sudden it asked to be formatted?

And yes, removable drives should be "safely removed" before disconnecting to ensure flushing out all data in buffers.

 

[Drspoon57]

Thanks for the quick reply!

It just, infuriatingly, says unable to format without any technical reason why.

I have been using this drive successfully for about a year now, always careful with handling and use. I have tried it on other computers since this format message but receive no different news

 

[dsperber]

Thanks for the quick reply!

It just, infuriatingly, says unable to format without any technical reason why.

I have been using this drive successfully for about a year now, always careful with handling and use. I have tried it on other computers since this format message but receive no different news

Well, the fact that you've at least started a FORMAT (although it ended prematurely and unsuccessfully) implies you might have gotten a certain distance along in the process, which means you may have already lost the data on the drive.

But it seems you've got nothing to lose by trying Partition Wizard's "partition recovery wizard" functionality. If there's enough left on that partition (which currently shows RAW) for PW to figure out what it once was, and then to see if the file system can be recovered, you might just luck out.

Got nothing to lose by trying.

 

[seavixen32]

RAW suggests there is no partition on the drive. Also, the fact that it has been marked Active may be the reason you can't format it.

If you can get by without recovering whatever data is on it I'd remove the Active flag and partitions, then repartition it and use the Quick Format option.

Or you could, as dsperber suggests, use Partition Wizard's partition recovery wizard.

Do remove the Active flag, though, as I'm convinced that's part of the problem.

Partition Wizard, as mentioned, is an excellent partitioning utility.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html