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Question

Formatting a drive that is not recognized

Jul 5, 2011 8:11AM PDT

I started to format a new hard drive connected via USB and the formatting failed. Now the drive cannot be recognized to format it. How can I format that drive when it is not recognized by my system?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
(NT) How did you format it?
Jul 5, 2011 9:32PM PDT
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Used Easus Partition Master Pro I think
Jul 5, 2011 11:11PM PDT

I don't recall if I used Easus Partition Master Pro or another commercial product I had installed on that machine.

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In that case
Jul 6, 2011 5:19AM PDT

and assuming you are using Windows, head over to Disk Management and see if the external drive is listed there.

If so, you can try to format it from there.

Mark

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Does not appear; it is not recognized by windows
Jul 6, 2011 6:21AM PDT

I'm using Windows 7 and it isn't recognized. That's the heart of the problem.

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Re: not recognized by Windows
Jul 6, 2011 6:25AM PDT

Even if it's not recognized by Windows Explorer, it might very well be recognized by Windows Disk Management. Did you try Mark suggestion? Or did you simply dismiss it? Your post is not clear about that.

Kees

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Re: not recognized by Windows
Jul 6, 2011 9:38AM PDT

Sorry for not being clear. Not recognized either by explorer or disk management. If I start the computer (laptop) with the USB plugged in, it fails to start because it appears to be scanning the disk (or so I assume). If I then unplug it, start up is normal again. Same thing when I run an image back up (Acronis). It takes Acronis forever to get started when the bad disk is connected via USB. But starts up quickly otherwise. So, at some level, the system is recognizing something. But not that I can view in either explorer or disk management..

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Time to go back to the shop ...
Jul 6, 2011 4:57PM PDT

and ask for a new one under warranty

Kees