Unable to format External drive.
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NoLiMiTSoLDieR




Posts: 1038
Location: NL
PostPosted: Mon, 14th Nov 2011 20:21    Post subject: Unable to format External drive.
Hi folks, I got a problem with this portable (USB) hd hoping you could give me a solution.

I was about to copy some things to this drive, but noticed it was formatted in FAT so I couldnt copy files bigger then 3 gig to it.
aye no problem, I started backing-up files then executed a format to NTFS.
During this process I had a lockup, and now im unable to access the drive.

It still detects the drive in windows but very slow, in explorer and disk manager it only shows the drive letter and capacity, When I try to format it, it comes up with an error : Unable to complete format.

Right now at this point it wont even list the drive in disk management, at some point it will only show up in device manager. (usually locks up device manager aswell)

*Edit*
It shows up fine in device manager right now, but still unable to format and or spot the drive in disk management or explorer.


Its a Samsung S2 250GB Portable.

* Drive LED keeps flickering.

* When i try to format using the samsung format utility it says : Partition access denied.

* When it still showed the drive letter I was able to recover files from it using GetDataBack.


Mind Is Full Of Fuck


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Dhaos




Posts: 320

PostPosted: Mon, 14th Nov 2011 21:09    Post subject:
tried it in safe mode? or via dos
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shole




Posts: 3363

PostPosted: Mon, 14th Nov 2011 21:49    Post subject:
some usb-sata chips are shit with when filesystem goes sideways
open the drive enclosure, plug the sata drive directly to your computer and partition and format it and then put it back in the enclosure
it's bs and probably breaks warranty but there's not much else one can do, other than return it
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todd72173




Posts: 2403

PostPosted: Mon, 14th Nov 2011 23:38    Post subject:
try on another pc. If still fails, remove case and plug in directly. If still fails, return it!


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doobzilla




Posts: 1099
Location: Team America's Mount Rushmore Base. Stolen from Indians.
PostPosted: Tue, 15th Nov 2011 00:21    Post subject:
Also, I highly recommend using the Disk Management snap-in (Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management) to format and partition drives nowadays. Well, if you are using Vista or Windows7 that is.


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Thanks for the idea Lutz!
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shole




Posts: 3363

PostPosted: Tue, 15th Nov 2011 03:57    Post subject:
he said it doesn't appear in disk management
the format tool is the same either way
w7 partitioning is a big improvement over earlier though.. you can now resize partitions and fancy stuff like that
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Sin317
Banned



Posts: 24321
Location: Geneva
PostPosted: Tue, 15th Nov 2011 12:55    Post subject:
he said it shows in disk managment.


tried to delete it (partition) and create new one ?
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shole




Posts: 3363

PostPosted: Tue, 15th Nov 2011 17:04    Post subject: Re: Unable to format External drive.
NoLiMiTSoLDieR wrote:
Right now at this point it wont even list the drive in disk management, at some point it will only show up in device manager. (usually locks up device manager aswell)

*Edit*
It shows up fine in device manager right now, but still unable to format and or spot the drive in disk management or explorer.
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NoLiMiTSoLDieR




Posts: 1038
Location: NL
PostPosted: Fri, 18th Nov 2011 19:20    Post subject:
Thanks for the reply's.

I still havent manage to fix this thing, and it doenst show up in Disk management only in device manager.

Tried it on three different computers even in dos, but no luck!.

I was about to remove the caseing, or rather demolish it cause there are no screws or anything.
Then i stumbled on something while googling..
Somebody has opened this thing and told theres no IDE and or Sata connector on the HD itself, only USB.

So that means im fucked? I borrowed this thing Razz


Q6600/Club3D 4890/2GB DDR2/WiN7\XP/1.5 TB/23 Inch LCD
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shole




Posts: 3363

PostPosted: Sat, 19th Nov 2011 01:09    Post subject:
wtf...
well, all i can think of now is to get a linux machine, hook it up to that and see if it shows a /dev/sd? device
and if it does, fdisk it, wipe any existing partition table and create a new one with a single dos partition
if it doesn't show there, i'd just return the drive for a new one
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Saner




Posts: 6877
Location: Uk
PostPosted: Sat, 19th Nov 2011 08:55    Post subject:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php


ragnarus wrote:

I saw things like that in here and in other "woman problems" topics so...... Am I the only one that thinks some authorities needs to be alerted about Saner and him possibly being a rapist and/or kidnapper ?Smile

Saner is not being serious. Unless its the subject of Santa!
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NoLiMiTSoLDieR




Posts: 1038
Location: NL
PostPosted: Sat, 19th Nov 2011 17:14    Post subject:
I fixed it with some tool called samsung smart utility.
The drive couldnt read for some reason..

With this tool I could write all (low level format) and it worked.
When done I was able to format the drive again.

Yay! thanks!


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