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Question

Can't get external hard drive to show up

Feb 16, 2016 7:41PM PST

So I bought a replacement hard drive for my ps4 and I am trying to use the one that was in my ps4 as external storage for my pc. I plug it in but it doesn't show up in My Computer. I went to disk management and look at it and my computer recognizes it. It appears to be partitioned and everything says it is healthy. All of the partitions are blank, (not named) and when I right click on any of them, all of the options are greyed out except Delete Volume. And when I right click on the disk, the only option available is convert to dynamic disk (or properties, which I examined and everything is fine, drivers up to date, etc). All of the solutions I have seen to similar problems required something in these right click menus. Any ideas as to how I can get it to show up on my computer so I can actually use it?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Did you delete the volume?
Feb 16, 2016 7:44PM PST

That was not clear. Also, the file system the PS4 uses is not one Windows understands. You may have to wipe the drive clean so you can partition and format it. I use GPARTED for that work.

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No I did not
Feb 16, 2016 7:53PM PST

I didn't delete the volume or convert the disk to a dynamic disk. I didn't hit anything because I wasn't sure what would happen. And yes I figured I would have to wipe it clean anyways, I just thought I would be able to do that with disk manager. Will GParted be able to perform that?

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I use GPARTED for a reason
Feb 17, 2016 7:38AM PST

Mostly because Windows sometimes can't deal with foreign partition schemes.

You need to try deleting all the partitions in Windows first. If that fails, you move to booting up a GPARTED CD.

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What do I do now?
Feb 19, 2016 6:17AM PST

I deleted all the partitions just fine, but now it shows as 456.76 GB unallocated and I'm not sure what to do. Do I have to create partitions myself? How many and what size?

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Re: create partition
Feb 19, 2016 7:34AM PST

Yes, you must create one or more partitions on that hard disk. I shouldn't do more than 20, because Windows must be able to give them driveletters.
Most people would only do one. Why would you need more?

Kees