USB 3.0 Asks for a Reformat

bikeracer4487

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So, one of my external hard drives is a standard 3.5" 7200RPM 1TB SATA2 HDD in a Vantec Nexstar CX USB 3.0 driv enclosure. I use this drive primarily for back up and it had been working fine with one exception (to be explained later) up until this point. Yesterday I partially disassembled my rig just to do some basic cleaning out / dusting and to move some the cables around to help airflow...basic stuff. When I plug everything back in and power it up Windows tells me that my USB 3.0 external needs to be formatted before it can be used...which is bulls*** because it was working fine before I unplugged it. I tried plugging it into the other USB 3.0 port on my mobo and again with no luck. Now, sometimes, when I would unplug and replug the external it would wait several seconds and then ask me to reformat, other times I would hear the sound of the USB device being continuously connected and disconnected via that damn Windows sound that plays. I tested that my USB 2.0 flash drives work in the 3.0 ports just fine, and also, the 3.0 external works if I plug it into a 2.0 port...told you it doesn't need to be formatted... I tried uninstalling and deleting and then reinstalling the USB 3.0 drivers but that didn't seem to help...neither did multiple system reboots. Now, as for the previous issue I had with this drive...it was the same exact issue. It happened a little while ago and I can't remember exactly what I did to fix it, but I'm reasonably certain it involved reinstalling the entire OS which I'd really rather not do since I just did that only about a week ago. Would really appreciate any insight into this.
 
The first thing I'd do is to remove the drive from the external enclosure and connect it directly to a motherboard SATA port to see if the issue is the drive or the enclosure.

If it doesn't work on the motherboard port, the next thing I'd try is to download, burn and boot from one of the Linux LiveCD distros to see if it will recognize the drive.
 

bikeracer4487

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Well, like I said, I've already confirmed that it works when plugged into a USB 2.0 port so it seems to be some issue with the enclosures USB 3.0 functionality...at least I assume it's the enclosure that has the issue because I've now confirmed that my USB 3.0 flash drive works in both slots and the external HDD works in neither.

EDIT: Just reset BIOS to defaults to no avail.
 

bikeracer4487

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Huh...I don't see where I said it doesn't work in 2.0 ports...

In any case, it turns out the issue was actually firmware related (the external enclosure's firmware) and once I updated that it seems to be working fine now. So thanks for your help anyway!