I have a hard disk which I used on my lap top. An operating system is installed on it. Now I want to use it as an external drive. The problem is I can not format it on my machine. The machine does not recognize it. It may due to the OS on my machine has a conflict with the OS on the external drive. How can I format the external drive?
Formatting a hard drive externally with an OS on it
- Thread starter kingks
- Start date
Solution
if you can just connect the one hard drive you want to have formatted (don't connect the other one), you could make a usb boot for Dban and that would make it blank.
http://www.dban.org/
Use this to make a bootable usb drive
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
I found it's easier to do it this way than spend an hour or more trying to figure out why
I've used dban about 20x and never had a problem with it. Just a reminder, only have that 1 hard drive connected that you want erased.
http://www.dban.org/
Use this to make a bootable usb drive
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
I found it's easier to do it this way than spend an hour or more trying to figure out why
I've used dban about 20x and never had a problem with it. Just a reminder, only have that 1 hard drive connected that you want erased.
if you can just connect the one hard drive you want to have formatted (don't connect the other one), you could make a usb boot for Dban and that would make it blank.
http://www.dban.org/
Use this to make a bootable usb drive
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
I found it's easier to do it this way than spend an hour or more trying to figure out why
I've used dban about 20x and never had a problem with it. Just a reminder, only have that 1 hard drive connected that you want erased.
http://www.dban.org/
Use this to make a bootable usb drive
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
I found it's easier to do it this way than spend an hour or more trying to figure out why
I've used dban about 20x and never had a problem with it. Just a reminder, only have that 1 hard drive connected that you want erased.
SuperSoph_WD
Glorious
- Jul 30, 2014
- 6,758
- 3
- 45,960
Hey there, kingks!
I don't know if @jaraldo's solution worked for you, but there are cases when the HDDs can't fully format with a third party software.
Since you cannot see the drive in the Disk management, I'd suggest to use command prompt (cmd) and type > diskpart
This command should be able to locate all your drives and then use the steps shown in the link to format it:
https://www.techhack.co.uk/2011/03/31/format-a-hard-drive-with-command-prompt/
Here are a couple of more threads from the community that might be helpful with the solution as well:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/247279-32-cannot-fully-format-seagate-st31500341as
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/295421-32-format-internal-secondary-hard-drive
Hope I helped!
SuperSoph_WD
SuperSoph_WD :
Hey there, kingks!
I don't know if @jaraldo's solution worked for you, but there are cases when the HDDs can't fully format with a third party software.
Since you cannot see the drive in the Disk management, I'd suggest to use command prompt (cmd) and type > diskpart
This command should be able to locate all your drives and then use the steps shown in the link to format it:
https://www.techhack.co.uk/2011/03/31/format-a-hard-drive-with-command-prompt/
Here are a couple of more threads from the community that might be helpful with the solution as well:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/247279-32-cannot-fully-format-seagate-st31500341as
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/295421-32-format-internal-secondary-hard-drive
Hope I helped!
SuperSoph_WD
Tks SuperSoph. The external drive does not getting listed when "list volume" on "diskpart". When I connect the drive on USB, the icon come and go on the system tray. There shouldn't be any problem with the disk since I removed it only yesterday after working for more than 2 years.
SuperSoph_WD
Glorious
- Jul 30, 2014
- 6,758
- 3
- 45,960
Hi again, kingks!
Have you tried formatting it from another computer?
Are you using a SATA-to-USB dock station/cable?
If you do, I'd suggest to plug the HDD internally with a SATA cable to a PC instead, and see if it gets detected then.
Maybe the USB doesn't supply it with enough power for your computer to recognize it.
Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD
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