My External Harddrive Won't Format

[Guest]

When I plug my external hardrive in, it says it needs to format before it can be used. Initially I wanted to avoid the format all together, but eventually I decided I will have to as I do not want to take it apart. I have now selected to format and it has then said that it could not complete the format. Is there anything I can do?

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi Beth, & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

What is the make and model # of the ext HDD? What OS are you running on your desktop/laptop computer?

The best thing to do for us to see exactly what is going on, is to connect the external HDD to your computer, boot it up, then go to Disk Management (right click My Computer, Manage, Disk Management in lower left)

Upload a screenshot of the Disk Management dialog box (photobucket or imageshack) so we can see the Disk Info and Volume Info, and what might be the problem.

 

[haska]

Some times the error will be fixed when you reset your computer,if the problem is still exist,please try free partition manager,the link in my sinature.