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[SOLVED] How do I reformat my external hard drive?

3K views 11 replies 4 participants last post by  spunk.funk 
#1 ·
I plugged in my older hard drive into my computer with a usb SATA dock. I deleted all the Volumes from it and started a new simple volume. Its been reformatting for more than an hour and its still stuck on one percent. I have tried unplugging it and restarting numerous times and it still isn't loading. Any suggestions?
 
#3 ·
Re: How do I reformat my external hard drive?

With the dock plugged into your Windows 7 computer with the drive in it. Go to Start/Search and type diskmgmt.msc Right click diskmgmt and Run As Administrator. Is the Drive showing up here? If there is any partition highlight it, and Right click it and Delete the Partition. The space turns to Unallocated Space. Now right click the Unallocated Space and Create a Partition and Format the Partition NTFS.
 
#5 ·
Re: How do I reformat my external hard drive?

So, I left it formatting over night and when I checked it in the morning it said formatting 100% but the window had also wasn't responding so I closed it and when I reopened it, the hard drive was just a RAW partition.
 
#8 ·
Re: How do I reformat my external hard drive?

These forums are very busy and we have a limited amount of free time. Waiting 1 hour for a response is probably the minimum I would expect.

Did you reboot after the format had finished. Try unplugging your drive and turn on your pc to check if Disk Management will load then. Reconnect and try again.

Its most likely that the disk will need initialised so windows can then format it

Thanks,
Altie
 
#9 ·
Re: How do I reformat my external hard drive?

It sounds as if the external drive has quit. Can you plug it into another pc and see if it works? Often times the internal drive is ok, its the chipset that converts it to usb that goes and it does exactly what you are seeing usually when that happens.
Please remember when posting on an internet forum, those who help here are in different areas of the world and have full time jobs in most cases so aren't available often times as much on week days as on weekends, and for what you pay for it, the support is usually pretty good!
 
#10 ·
Re: How do I reformat my external hard drive?

As Rich said there could be a problem with your USB Dock. Make sure your are using the power adapter that comes with it and it is the correct one. Be sure you are plugging the power adapter into a Wall socket and not a surge protector or extension cord which diminishes the power. Be sure you are plugging your dock into the Back USB port of the computer and not the front or through a Hub as these ports are weaker.
If you remove the dock does Computer Management come up? Can you try a different HDD in the Dock? If other HDD's work in the dock but not this drive, then this drives has quit on you.
 
#11 ·
Re: How do I reformat my external hard drive?

The hard drive has definitely quit. But, it might have been a problem with the dock because its not one that I bought. My old external hard drive also quit so I took it apart and Im just using the converter part of it.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Re: How do I reformat my external hard drive?

I took it apart and Im just using the converter part of it
By the quote, you mean the HDD Dock? Hopefully the logic board in the Dock converter part isn't the problem. You can also get a USB Adapter that's pretty cheap.
Please mark this thread Solved in the thread tools at the top.
 
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