My External drive (1.5T) won't format, seems "lost"

Antx777

Antx777

Antx777

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Hello, i recently had a Seagate Seagate Expansion 1.5TB from overclockers https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-228-SE and i did a back up on it yesterday - all fine. However, windows - (all of a sudden it seems) won't let me access it. It's "local Disk N", and when i click it it says: "you need to format this disk before yo ucan use it" So i clicked "Quick Format", only to have a prompt " (after the format warning) "WINDOWS WAS UNABLE TO COMPLETE THE FORMAT"

The capacity says 875 GB (back-up was about 145 gig BTW)
File system: NTFS (Default)
Allocation size: 4096 MB

a Right click on the Hard drive say "used space 0 bytes free space 0 bytes" nothing:confused:

TIA for any help

Running Windows 7 64 bit OS

Ant
 
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Do you need data from it? If not, try deleting the volume and partition using compmgmt.msc (start, run then type that in and press enter) and under the 'disk management' section. You can then create a new partition and it should prompt to quick or full format it and with what filesystem.
 
Yes it does Stulid unnder "disk management" there are FIVE Boxes: 867GB (Unallocated)/ 259GB (Healthy Primary partition) <two of these then "875 GB" Healty (Primary partition) then one with my drive letter "N" "875 GB ACTIVE, Primary Partition" and finally a small MB one (27 megs - healthy primary)

I don't need the data from it Alex, as it was just a backup, and still have the original on my pc . will try that thanks.

Ant
 
Thanks Guys:), did it by Deleting the volume (875GB Active), then the other ones, then creating a "new Simple Volume" Then formatting it. All ok now as its next to my C drive as normal accessable, so thank you;)


Edit: it begs the question though, supposing my "all-important-data" was on that drive - and no other, would it been "recoverable" (by some advanced software (acronis/paragon etc)?



~Ant
 
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bledd. said:
When you say you 'did a backup on it', what did you use for this?

Did you originally format it as an NTFS drive using all the space of the drive?
Click to expand...

I did a Windows 7 "system image" backup. I didn't format it though (only had it 2 week), so maybe it wasn't quite "NTSF"-ready?, I will always do TWO backups from now on on two seperate Externals. Western Digital is one i use (750 gig) and seems VERY reliable.

Thanks alex re: backup software advise..

Ant
 
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