Please help im going insane HDD wont initialize, i cant format it or anything.

[wozzsta]

Hi guys, i got a new 128gb M4 ssd this morning.

And when i installed it, i just unpluged my old 500gb HDD pluged in the SSD and installed windows, changed the SATA ports to ACHI and it works great.

I also have two 250gb laptop HDDs in there, that are working fine, these were also in the PC before i got the SDD.

For some reason i just cant format use or do anything with the old 500gb HDD, im guessing it has something to do with the fact i didn't format it before i unplugged it. .

When i go in the disk manager in Win7 it says disk 1 (1TB unallocated, even though its only 500gb), now im thinking for some reason it thinks its in a raid set up but i haven't turned anything into raid.

Please help im at my wits end.

Thanks.

TL;DR. new SSD cant format old HDD.

 

[wozzsta]

try right clicking computer/disk management,mark partition as active,then see if you can format it

it doesn't give me that option.

 

[wozzsta]

tried with third party software like easus partition magic and other partition managing software? it might let you format it,cant think whatelse you could try

I tried that and no joy, it says it write protected.

Do you have an external usb enclosure you could put it in? Would it be anything to do with changing sata to ACHI? What does the bios think the drive is?

i dont have one no. erm well i guess it thinks its a IDE drive as thats what it was set to previously.

But i have just reinstalled window to it with the bios settings in ACHI, and then when i plugged my SSD back in, it still does the strange thing of thinking its a 1tb drive and wont let me do anything to it.


EDIT: ok very strange, i changed back to IDE, and booted and the drive was there all was good, i formatted it then restarted changed back to ACHI and im back to square one. maybe this drive cant be used in ACHI? is that even possible?

It confusing concidering the two other drives i have function perfectly no matter what im using.

 

[wozzsta]

Seems to me it was part of a raid array,2x 500gb=1tb,tried setting to raid with just that drive connected,then press ctrl and alt to enter raid console at start up and delete the array

hmmm you could very well be correct as its a drive from my bro comp and he lent me this drive and it was originally in a raid set up. but seeing as its been reformatted loads since then it didn't even occur to me


EDIT: thanks everyone for the help. And wazza, you sir were 100% correct all working perfectly now, i cant thank you enough, i would have never in a million years thought of that.