Unable to format External HD.

a1rflow · 06-20-2005, 10:50 PM

I bought a 160gb seagate internalhard drive, and mounted it in a case so its external. The user manual for the external case said to set the hard drive to Master, so I set the hard drive to master. After mounting the screws, I plugged the power in and the USB to my computer. My computer recognized it as a USB mass storage device, but was unable to install the hardware successfully. I went to device manager to see if I could find it under disk drives but it was not there. I went to Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management, and all i saw was my current hard drive and my disk drives, so I am unable to format the new hard drive. How do i format it so I could get this external hard drive working?

crazijoe · 06-21-2005, 05:41 AM

First, I would make sure the external enclosure will support large drives. (>120).

**johnwill** · 06-21-2005, 05:46 PM

You first have to at least get it showing up in Device Manager. Try this:

Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.

When this is done, reboot TWICE.

Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.

06-20-2005, 10:50 PM	#1 (permalink)
a1rflow Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 1 OS: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2	Unable to format External HD. I bought a 160gb seagate internalhard drive, and mounted it in a case so its external. The user manual for the external case said to set the hard drive to Master, so I set the hard drive to master. After mounting the screws, I plugged the power in and the USB to my computer. My computer recognized it as a USB mass storage device, but was unable to install the hardware successfully. I went to device manager to see if I could find it under disk drives but it was not there. I went to Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management, and all i saw was my current hard drive and my disk drives, so I am unable to format the new hard drive. How do i format it so I could get this external hard drive working?

06-21-2005, 05:41 AM	#2 (permalink)
crazijoe Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Omaha, The Center of the Universe Posts: 7,632 OS: WinXP, Win2K3 My System	First, I would make sure the external enclosure will support large drives. (>120). __________________ Microsoft MCSA + Messaging, MVP, A+, Network+ http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...other/Help.jpg Do you want a real Republican? HDD diagnostic tools / HDD data recovery software

06-21-2005, 05:46 PM	#3 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,787 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	You first have to at least get it showing up in Device Manager. Try this: Unplug ALL USB devices. Open Device Manager. View, Show Hidden Devices. Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers. Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one. If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well. When this is done, reboot TWICE. Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience