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Started by kingks | | 7 answers
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?
kingks said:
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.
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
kingks
October 16, 2014 10:36:08 PM
SuperSoph_WD said:
kingks said:
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?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-dri...
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-fu...
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/295421-32-format-in...
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.
kingks said:
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?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-dri...
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-fu...
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/295421-32-format-in...
Hope I helped!
SuperSoph_WD
kingks
October 14, 2014 12:27:22 AM
kingks
October 14, 2014 12:19:22 AM
jaraldo
October 13, 2014 10:59:18 PM
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-ea...
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-ea...
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.
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