What Does It Mean To Format An External Hard Drive

• How To Reset External Hard Drive
• What Does It Mean To Format An External Hard Drive External
• What Does It Mean To Format An External Hard Drives
• Format Drive For Mac And Windows
• What Does It Mean To Format An External Hard Drive Completely

If you buy a new external hard disk, there is no need to format it. It will come clean, i mean it will be pre-formatted. If you already have an external Hard drive and have any issues such as corrupted files or virus, you can format the drive and ensure it is back to normal operational status. Apple pushed out a host of new features in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, and one of the most significant is native support for external storage—it means you can plug in thumb drives, external disk.

Common external hard drive format errors include the external hard drive says it needs to be formatted and you cannot complete the format successfully. The former issue needs you to perform data recovery with software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and then format the device; The latter involves multiple solutions given the error message you receive. All are detailed below.

External hard drives are one of the most frequently used storage devices for data storage and data backup. However, when we enjoy the convenience it brings, we may also encounter various issues related to the hard drive, like hard drive not recognized, external hard drive not showing files, and, the case we focus here, external hard drive format error. There are two types of format error: the external hard drive asking to format or the external hard drive not formatting. Specify your situation and follow the corresponding solutions to cope with the issue.

1. Check If Hard Drive is Corrupted. When your hard drive corrupted, there are some symptoms that.
2. Solution 4: Format External Hard Drive. If none of the above solutions work, formatting external hard drive is the only solution that can fix parameter is incorrect issue. Please note that formatting will also erase all the data from your external hard drive.
3. Part 2: Format External Hard Drive for Mac with Disk Utility. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your Mac.

Part 1. External Hard Drive Not Formatted - You Need to Format the Disk in Drive Before You Can Use It

'Recently, I ran into a problem while accessing my Seagate 160 GB external hard drive. Whenever I tried to open it, Windows showed me that my external hard drive was not formatted and asked me to format it. It's really annoying! How can I fix this problem without losing my data?'

Causes

Generally, when you receive this error message, you will see your external hard drive shown as RAW under File Explorer or Disk Management. That's because:

• The file system of your storage medium is corrupted due to a power outage, sudden ejection, virus attack..
• The file recognized by the operating system of your computer.

File system errors prevent you from accessing your external hard drive. That's why Windows asks you to format the device since formatting will assign a new file system to your external hard drive. With the file system, the external hard drive can be used for data storage again.

Solution

Some say the external hard drive not formatted error could be fixed by running CHKDSK. In fact, when you attempt to run CHKDSK on a storage medium with file system errors, it will fail to repair the disk, and CHKDSK will reports RAW. Therefore, the most straightforward way is to format the external hard drive directly. If you don't want to lose the files on your device, perform data recovery and then format the hard disk.

Procedure 1. Recover Data from the RAW External Hard Drive

Although the files on your external hard drive are inaccessible by Windows when the 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it' prompt pops up, you can easily access and recover them using software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, the reliable hard drive recovery software. It's capable of recover data after deletion, format, drive becoming RAW, and other data loss situations.

Step 1. Choose the partition.

Launch EaseUS formatted data recovery software after the installation. Choose the hard drive partition which you've accidentally formatted. Click 'Scan'.

Step 2. Select wanted files.

After the scanning process, you can click 'Filter' to filter a specific file type to quickly find wanted files.

Step 3. Recover files to a secure location. Descargar emulador de android para pc windows 7.

Select the data files you wish to recover. Click 'Recover'. Choose a location to store the files and click 'OK'.

Procedure 2. Format the External Hard Drive

The easiest way to get things done is to format an external hard drive under File Explorer.

Step 1. Open 'This PC' (in Windows 10) and go to 'Devices and drives'.

Step 2. Right-click your external hard drive and choose 'Format'.

Step 3. Choose the file system and click 'Start'.

Step 4. In the warning prompt, click 'OK' to start formatting your hard disk.

If your external hard drive doesn't format, move on to the next part.

Part 2. External Hard Drive Won't Format - The Format Did Not Complete Successfully

'I have an LG external hard drive which I unplugged one day without doing the safe eject. Now it won't work. The computer recognizes its existence on the F drive, and Disk Management says the status is healthy (primary partition). But it will not format. Under the File system, the drive is described as RAW. I do not need to recover the data but I got it only six months ago and hate to have to throw it away and buy a new one. Any help would be much appreciated.' — From How-To Geek Forum

When you try to format an internal or external hard drive, you may receive one of the three error prompts that indicate a format failure:

• 'The format did not complete successfully.'
• 'The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.'
• 'Drive is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect.'

Causes

Unlike the external hard drive saying it needs to be formatted, external hard drive not formatting could result in various reasons, including:

• Your storage medium is infected by a virus
• The hardware driver is outdated
• System file (DLL, SYS, EXE) is missing or damaged
• your hard disk is damaged

Solutions

Based on the possible causes, there are six workable solutions to the problem 'External hard drive not formatting':

Method 1. Remove the Virus

You can run the anti-virus software installed on your computer or Windows Defender.

Step 1. Go to 'Settings' > 'Update & Security' > 'Windows Security'.

Step 2. Click 'Virus & threat protection'.

Step 3. In the 'Threat history' section, click 'Scan now' to scan for viruses on your computer.

Method 2. Premiere pro to fcpx. Update Hardware Driver

Updating the hardware driver can easily fix the hard drive format error caused by an outdated device driver. You can do it under Disk Management

Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to PC, right-click on 'This PC' (in Windows 10) and choose 'Properties'.

Step 2. Click 'Device Manager' then expand 'Disk drives'. Find and right-click the problematic USB drive and select 'Update driver'

Step 3. Click 'automatically search for driver software online'.

Step 4. Wait for the driver to be updated, then reboot your computer. Afterward, reformat your external hard drive to have a try.

Method 3. Run System File Checker Tool

The Windows built-in System File Checker tool can repair missing or corrupted system files, including the DLL, SYS, or EXE files that cause your external hard drive won't format. Here are the simple steps to run the tool:

Step 1. Click 'Start' and type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click 'Command Prompt' and choose 'Run as administrator'.

Step 3. Enter the following command lines in order. (The DISM command is used to make a Windows image to protect your data.)

Method 4. Run CHKDSK

If you won't be able to format your external hard drive and the device is not RAW, you can run CHKDSK to repair possible disk errors on it.

Step 1. Press the 'Windows' key and type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click 'Comand Prompt' and choose 'Run as administrator'.

Step 3. In the CMD window, type chkdsk G: /f and hit 'Enter'. (Replace 'G' with the drive letter of your external storage device.)

Step 4. Then Windows will start checking and repairing disk errors and damaged files. Wait for the process to finish.

Method 5. Format your External Hard Drive via DiskPart or Third-Party Software

As mentioned, there is more than one way to format a hard drive. If you failed under File Management, you can retry using DiskPart or a third-party hard drive format tool. To use DiskPart:

Step 1. Press 'Windows + R' and enter diskpart. Click 'Yes' in the prompt to run diskpart.exe.

Step 2. Then enter the command lines below in order:

Method 6. Delete the Partition and Recreate a New Volume

If the methods above don't work, there is one more tip worth trying, which is to delete the partition and then create a new volume.

Step 1. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Manage'.

Step 2. Right-click the problematic disk or partition and choose 'Delete Volume'. In the 'Delete simple volume' prompt, select 'Yes' to confirm the deletion.

Step 3. Afterward, the deleted partition will show up as unallocated space. Right-click the unallocated space and choose 'New Simple Volume..'

Step 4. In New Simple Volume Wizard, click 'Next' to continue.

Step 5. Follow the wizard to specify the volume size, assign a drive letter to the volume, and then format the partition.

The Bottom Line

Many users report that they encounter the external hard drive not formatted error after a forceful ejection of the device. Thus, be careful to remove any external storage device using the Safely Remove option. As for the external hard drive not formatting error, the causes vary. Yet it's also necessary to grow a good habit while using your storage device, be it an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or SD card. Hope the solutions in this article are helpful to you.

Nov 23, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

A computer's hard drive experiences malfunctions over time, which are caused by multiple factors like viruses, or sketchy or incompatible software, or the computer's old age. To help maintain and resolve performance issues, reformatting the hard drive every year is advisable. In this article, we will learn how to format the hard disk in Windows 7. If in case you forget to create a backup of your files, then we will show you how to recover those files.

• Part 1. Overview of Formatting Disk in Windows 7:
• Part 2. Types of Hard Drive Formatting For You to Choose:
• Part 3. How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows 7 by Disk Management?
• Part 4. How to Recover Data from Hard Drive After Format?

Part 1. Overview of Formatting Disk in Windows 7:

Windows 7, introduced many user-friendly features with its release. One of them was revamping the method to format the hard drive on the go by adding the freshly minted Disk Management utility. It allowed the user to create partitions and format the hard drive with ease. Here in this section, we will discuss everything related to disk formatting on Windows 7.

1. What Is Hard Drive Formatting?

Disk formatting permits the user to remove the used storage from the storage device altogether and also helps in managing one or more new file systems. It can also be used to check for faulty tracks or defective sectors within a hard drive.

Formatting is the process of setting up/preparing a storage device for first use, which includes main on-disk structures initialization, partitioning (dividing disk space into segments), and executing another file system's tasks.

Formatting can be done on almost every kind of storage device like a Hard disk drive, USB flash drive, external hard drive, and an SSD. Before formatting any type of hard drive, we recommend that you should form a backup of all the crucial files present inside the storage device. The backup will allow you to open and use the data again after the formatting is finished.

2. Reasons for Formatting the Hard Drive:

There may be multiple factors behind formatting a storage drive, we will discuss some of those reasons in this section of the article.

• Sluggish Speed: If your Hard Drive is old, then there is a chance that it has piled up a stack of unwanted cache memory or temporary files. It is easy to remove such files, but sometimes you can't seem to find them. This cluster of data can reduce the performance of the system. The only feasible solution is to format the entire Hard drive, which will release it from the burden of unnecessary files.
• Changing the File System: If you have decided to replace your computer or to switch from Windows to macOS, then you need to change the file system of your drive compatible with the Mac. To change the file system, formatting the disk is necessary.
• Clean the HDD from Unwanted Apps and Viruses: Windows PC is always prone to unwanted Malware, which puts the data and your personal information at risk. If you do not have anti-virus software on your computer, then you must format the entire drive to get rid of your malware problem.

Part 2. Types of Hard Drive Formatting For You to Choose:

There are two types of formatting procedure that the computer may ask you to choose, which we will discuss briefly:

• Quick Format.
• Full Format.

Quick Format:

The quick formatting process is used to make the formatting process quick. This method does not check the drive for bad sectors, so you must only opt for this method if your purpose is just to clear some space in the HDD. The major disadvantage of this method is that the data doesn't get completely wiped out so if your drive is still causing problems after the quick format, then you should perform a full format scan on your hard drive.

How To Reset External Hard Drive

Full Format:

A Full Format is recommended if you believe that your computer is infected with malware and viruses. This method checks the hard drive for bad sectors, and it usually takes longer to erase data than a quick format.

If your drive is misbehaving and performing sluggishly, then you must perform a full format on your HDD. It is a better option to make sure no issues exist with the drive. You can initiate the formatting process by simply unchecking the 'Quick Format' tab and then clicking on Start.

Part 3. How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows 7 by Disk Management?

The Disk Management utility:

The Disk Management Utility offers you the full management of the disk-based hardware(HDD) recognized by Windows, which also includes an external storage source. At the bottom end of Disk Management, you can see the graphical representation of the physical drives installed in your computer. Disk Management is the place that allows you to create and attach virtual hard disk files in Windows OS. You can create single makes, which acts like a Hard Drive, which offers you to store data on them from the primary hard drive or any other location like an external hard drive.

You can format your Hard disk drive with the help of Disk Management. The utility is an inbuilt Windows tool that can be used to perform the following functions:

• It enables the user to view and manage the disk drives
• It also helps in formatting the hard drive and creating new partitions.
• It provides the feature for you to convert an empty MBR to a GPT disk, and vice versa.
• Disk Utility also enables to extend and shrink partition.
• You can also change the disk volume's letter and paths with the help of this utility.

Precautions before formatting a Hard Drive:

If you are preparing to perform a reformat on your computer's hard drive, then you must take necessary precautions before moving forward with the process. The formatting method will erase absolutely everything on the disk if you don't make the right arrangements. Here are the things that you must do before cleaning the hard drive.

• Save your photos and videos on an external hard drive or sync them with a cloud storage service, like Google Drive or Dropbox.
• Write down the list of your computer's drivers and other third-party apps that you might want to use again.
• Copy all of your browser settings.

How to Reformat a Hard Drive?

Reformatting is the method of erasing the used space of a disk drive or the entire storage device. Such a scenario arises if you want to use a Mac-based disk with a Windows computer, you would need to reformat it using a Windows-compatible file system that would be the FAT32.

Here in this section, we will discuss the method to format and reformat a volume of the hard drive through the disk management utility.

• Type 'diskmgmt.msc' in the search box on the start menu.
• Click on Disk Management. The management window will open.
• Right-click the drive you want to format.
• Click on Format.

• Choose a file system. You can keep the rest as it is unless you have specific reasons to change it.
• Check the 'Perform a Quick Format' tab, if you want to format the drive quickly, otherwise keep the option unchecked.
• Click on OK.

What Does It Mean To Format An External Hard Drive External

After formatting a hard drive, you will find that the software program conflicts or glitches that were causing problems on your PC will disappear, and the computer's performance will improve significantly. You can perform this procedure on any kind of USB flash drive and external hard drive.

How to Format a New Volume of the Hard Drive on Windows 7?

New volumes are created if you intend to create new partitions or change the size of your volume. For example, if you have recently installed an SSD on your computer, then you will find an unallocated storage space where the previous version of your Windows OS was stored. You can create and format a new disk volume on a hard disk, with that unallocated disk space on your computer's hard drive.

Please follow our guide to create a new volume by assigning it a new name and formatting it.

• Open Disk Management.
• Right-click on unallocated space on your hard disk, which is located at the bottom of the window with the black graphical representation.
• Click on New Simple Volume and click on Next.
• Check the format this volume with the following setting option and click on Next
• You will be asked to assign a letter to the newly created volume.
• Click on Finish and the drive will be formatted.

Part 4. How to Recover Data from Hard Drive After Format?

What Does It Mean To Format An External Hard Drives

After formatting your hard drive and losing all the data as a result, if you intend to use those files again, then there is a way to recover all of that data back. But, you should not save any new information on the formatted hard drive, or it will be overwritten entirely, so it is extremely essential to perform the recovery operation as soon as possible.

Recoverit by Wondershare:

You can recover your data by using data recovery software on your PC. We recommended that you use the Recoverit Data Recovery software for Windows to restore deleted files from the formatted hard drive in Windows 7.

Features of Recoverit:

• It offers fast scanning speed and a near 100% efficiency.
• It recovers data in almost every type of file format known in the tech world.
• Recoverit supports all types of File system formats like exFAT, FAT32, HFS, NTFS.

After installing the app, you are required to launch it from the Start menu by searching Recoverit and double-clicking on the icon. From there, you are required to follow our three-step process to recover deleted files.

1. Select the Location:

Format Drive For Mac And Windows

After the Recoverit data recovery software for windows is opened on the computer, then please follow the steps mentioned below:

• Select the 'Location' of the disk volume or folder.
• Click on the 'Start' button to initiate the process.

What Does It Mean To Format An External Hard Drive Completely

2. Scan for Lost Data:

• The scanning process will start. It will take some time for the scan to finish, depending on the storage space of the drive/folder.
• A scan completion pop up will appear on the screen with a beep tone.
• The results will be displayed, you can view them from the File Type and File Path section.
• You can pause or stop the scanning process by clicking the Pause button.

3. Recover the Lost Data:

• Recoverit allows users to Preview the recovered files to check their authenticity.
• You can select the files and retrieve them by clicking on the 'Recover' button to reclaim your data back.

Closing Words:

Formatting a drive on Windows 7 is an easy as well as fast, which saves the user both time and money. If in case your hard drive gets infected with some virus, then you must perform a full format on your drive. Now you know the way to create and delete partitions on your Windows PC by using the disk management utility. Formatting the disk means that your data will get erased with no trace, but Recoverit by Wondershare allows you to recover that data if you ever feel the need to use it again.

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