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External Hard Drive with no File system

Last answer on Nov 20, 2009 4:47:28 am GMT dr.eggman789, on Nov 6, 2008 3:31:11 am GMT 
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Hello,
Hi, I have a Maxtor OneTouch 500GB external hard drive that unfortunately has no File system. The drive registers under Device Manager, but not My Computer or Disk Management, and therefore has to letter assignment.

Does anyone know how to load FAT32 onto this disk? If not, any file system will do.

Thanks so much in advance,
Jake

Configuration: Windows XP
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1

tiesdj, on Nov 6, 2008 10:40:56 am GMT
  • +1

Hey there,

just try to get a software called stellar phoenix fat32 ntfs creator and just run the software on your pc and after that your hard drive should be working fine.

but all depends on the degree on how much the hard drive file sytem has been damaged and sometimes you dont have any choice except than to reformat the drive.

   
Reply to tiesdj

2

Hackpc4lyfe, on Dec 19, 2008 7:53:29 pm GMT
  • +2

Plug it into your computer, then go to my computer. under devices with removable storage. right click on your external hard drive and go to format then under file system scroll down to fat32 and put it the name of your hard drive and hit start. good luck!

   
Reply to Hackpc4lyfe

3

Jake, on Dec 20, 2008 5:24:48 am GMT
  • +1

As for the first poster, it was a virus. Appreciate it, friend.

For the second poster, That strategy didn't work, because, like I said, it doesn't register under that menu. But, I had a friend fix it for me. My only problem now is that Windows won't format any drive over 40GB to FAT32... It only shows NTFS as an option. I need a good recommendation for a program that can do the format for me... ANy suggestions

   
Reply to Jake

4

Hackpc4lyfe, on Dec 21, 2008 11:33:38 pm GMT

If it says NTFS that means that is a actual harddrive and if you will be using it for your xbox or computer it is better to do that because then you can reformat anytime and it doesnt have to be under 32 gigabytes. try that it should work

   
Reply to Hackpc4lyfe

6

Kewlraul, on Feb 12, 2009 10:21:46 pm GMT

Jake, do you know exactly what your friend did to fix the problem you had with the drive not showing in Disk Management? I have an old IDE Maxtor drive with tons on it, so purchased an IDE to external USB enclosure. The drive shows up under Device Manager but not in My Computer OR Disk Management. No way to access it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

RJ

   
Reply to Kewlraul

21

raje, on Aug 20, 2009 8:42:18 pm BST

Hi frnd,

i think we got same problem with maxtor 500gb my disk is not visible anywhere except and device manager>usb controller. Did you get a solution.

Please update me if you fix this issue.

Thnks in advance

rajesh

   
Reply to raje

7

Traveler32807, on Feb 13, 2009 8:06:28 pm GMT
  • +3

Jake, what did your friend did to fix the problem you had with the drive not showing in Disk Management? I have an external Maxtor III drive which has this exact problem.The drive shows up under Device Manager but not in My Computer OR Disk Management. No way to access it. Any help would be greatly appreciated

   
Reply to Traveler32807

20

raje, on Aug 20, 2009 8:39:23 pm BST

Jake please tell me what your friend fixed when the drive is not detected anywhere except at device manager usb controller.

   
Reply to raje

26

Vu, on Nov 10, 2009 5:37:23 am GMT

Hi Jake,

I have an 320 GB Comstar external hard drive. I stored all my important document and picture on it. Havn't use it for a while . Now when I plug it to computer, it is regconize under My computer as F drive but under Properties there is 0 Used space and 0 Free space. File system is nothing in 1 computer and RAW in another computer.

If you have anyway to recall the picture and documents it would be appreciated so much.

Can you please send me an email because I just got this on google.

Thanks in advance

   
Reply to Vu

27

LordMorpheus, on Nov 11, 2009 11:51:52 am GMT

Hello

1st af all, thats common to MAXTOR disk gain bad sectors just becouse they are without use for a while, and even with use, they usually get them anyway, most of the times about 5years of use.

2nd thing, if you really WANT to recouver your data inside the disk, please feel free and reply to me using this email, and i'll suggest some of the tools you could use to get it done.
If you don't want to recouver anything and just want to get it rolling on again, just FORMAT it, and after that run windows DISK tools.

Best Regards
Lord Morpheus
=)

   
Reply to LordMorpheus

28

dan, on Nov 13, 2009 3:49:01 pm GMT

Hi, I have the same problem as the reader below. I am not an expert unfortunately. All i want to do is recover the data or at least what can be recovered. From what I understand the partition is lost or damaged but not sure. Any help to recover the data would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi Jake,

I have an 320 GB Comstar external hard drive. I stored all my important document and picture on it. Havn't use it for a while . Now when I plug it to computer, it is regconize under My computer as F drive but under Properties there is 0 Used space and 0 Free space. File system is nothing in 1 computer and RAW in another computer.

If you have anyway to recall the picture and documents it would be appreciated so much.

Can you please send me an email because I just got this on google.

Thanks in advance

   
Reply to dan

29

 sadhu, on Nov 20, 2009 4:47:28 am GMT

FAT32 has an upper limit of 32,767 GB. Cannot have a larger drive. If you need larger, you must go to NTFS or else instal Linux.

   
Reply to sadhu

5

Jake, on Dec 22, 2008 1:15:13 am GMT

But I'm not using it for my xbox or computer, so like I said, I need to get it in FAT32...

   
Reply to Jake

8

NickNYC, on Feb 15, 2009 9:25:36 am GMT
  • +2

IF YOUR HARD DRIVE WAS WORKING BEFORE AND ALL OF A SUDDEN IT STOPPED BEING DETECTED... YOU NEED DATA RECOVERY SERVICE LIKE THE ONE LISTED BELOW...

IF THIS IS A NEW HARD DRIVE AND YOU'RE TRYING TO FORMAT IT FOR USE,,,
THEN TRY THIS:

1. RIGHT CLICK ON "MY COMPUTER", AND CLICK ON "MANAGE"

2. WHEN "COMPUTER MANAGEMENT" POPS UP, CLICK ON --> "DISK MANAGEMENT" ON THE LEFT pane.

--->> DO NOT DO THE WIZARD CUZ THAT MIGHT DEFAULT TO NTFS....!!!

3. Right Click on the Disk that's your External Drive (that you want to Partition and Format to FAT32)
-->CAREFULL YOU DONT CHOOSE THE WRONG ONE CUZ THAT WILL DESTROY THE CONTENTS AND YOU'LL HAVE A BIGGER HEAD ACHE ON YOUR HANDS.

4. MARK PARTITION AS ACTIVE

5. FORMAT to FAT32 (BTW, Dont make it a Dynamic Drive, thats for RAID use)

Good luck
-------------
http://www.EpicDataRecovery.com

   
Reply to NickNYC

9

Suren, on Mar 22, 2009 8:13:56 am GMT

Thanks................ It is working

   
Reply to Suren

10

John, on Apr 24, 2009 12:14:41 am BST

Hello NickNYC,
Hope you don't mind me asking you this question. I have the same issue as well - it is a new hard drive & I need to format it before use. The trouble is, it has to be FAT 32 because I'll be using it with my windows PC as well as my apple Mac. Unfortunately, the only formatting option i get after following your steps is NTFS, but Mac doesn't support NTFS.

Is there any other way? By the way, its a LaCie Rugged hard drive, 250GB with USB & firewire interface.
Sorry about the trouble,
John

   
Reply to John

11

Bill0, on May 11, 2009 3:49:10 pm BST
  • +10

Download this free program and it will format a 1 TB drive to fat 32.

   
Reply to Bill0

12

Bill0, on May 11, 2009 3:50:16 pm BST
  • +5

Download this free program and it will format a 1 TB drive to fat 32.




http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/index.html

   
Reply to Bill0

13

Jake Craik, on May 13, 2009 3:46:55 am BST

Thanks, Bill0, that solved my problem.

I appreciate it.

Cheers,
Jake

   
Reply to Jake Craik

15

artesina, on May 24, 2009 7:27:25 pm BST

I have a big problem .
I have new hard drive wd500aakb never used (new) with nothing on it.
Whit external device usb adapter to ide (I HAVE A NOTEBOOK) WINDOWS SEE ONLY USB STORAGE DEVICE BUT NOT MAKE A LETTER ASSIGNMENT ON MY COMPUTER
On ubuntu somtimes make usb device but it is impossible to make the command fdisk (dont work)
What I can do?
I must format it on ext3 but if it is possible to see if it work on windows (and after after fat 32 or ntfs I can try with linux) it was good for me
What I can do?
I dont know english very well so please you a simple and step by step help if you can
Thx a lot
p.s:also my decoder where the disk was designed , it is impossible to format (impossible to inizialized)
Help hel please :(

   
Reply to artesina

16

Morpheus, on Jul 22, 2009 4:26:53 pm BST

Hi

I see two ways to solve that, a simple one and a bit difficult one.
Connect your external HardDrive to your PC. Open "Control Panel", then open "Administrative tools", then open "computer management", in there select "Storage" and "Disk Management".
Now you're seeing your Disks, Disk0, Disk1, etc this deppend on the number of disks that you have and CDRom etc.
They all have a color bar on the TOP, HardDrives have it on BLUE, and you connect USB drive that you say that windows does not recognize, showld appear with the top bar on BLACK, meaning that has no partition on it.
IF you DOT NOT HAVE ANY DATA TO RESTORE or UNDELET, becous this will DELETE anything on the drive, do as follow, select the Disk with the BLACK bar and on right-mouse click select "create Partition", "primary partition", maxim disk size to have all disk avaliable, and chose "NTFS" for disks with more than ~30GB or FAT32 to a Disk Size smaller than 30 and larger than 8GB etc... my opinion, let what windows decide.
Then chose a complete formate and wait.

This showld solve your problem :) any doubt or issue, please send e-mail, i sow your message shearching web and on the fly..

Hope to help
Lord Morpheus

   
Reply to Morpheus

17

Zebedy, on Aug 10, 2009 11:42:18 pm BST

Billo, thanks that helped me out of a hole!

   
Reply to Zebedy

24

tigergriz, on Sep 19, 2009 9:36:38 am BST

Nice job Billo, the tokiwa fat 32 formatter program worked, i was afraid I would have to crack open the tower and connect as a slave but the formater seems to be working fine and the surpising thing for me was my usb drive did not show up in my comp. but the formatter has a drop down and you sure do want to choose the correct drive as it was defaulted to my "C" drive, this is great no cracking open the case and hooking up as slave just to format a drive, so freakin windows will see it as a drive via USB.

   
Reply to tigergriz

18

DrThwing, on Aug 15, 2009 10:42:50 pm BST

NickNYC & Dr Morpheus,

Thank you for helping *me* (a nameless lurker) with this same problem. I bought a 500GB SATA drive and PCI host card to add on to my 6-y/o computer, and though I was able to successfully install the thing (and see it in the device manager), it had no letter and therefore was useless.

It's currently formatting (59% done - golly but 500GB takes a long time to format!!) so I don't know for sure if it's going to work, but at least it's Drive F: now. Yay!!!

I have spent lterally weeks on this, learning how to FLASH my BIOS, mucking around with Driver Detective, installing, unistalling and re-installing the PCI card & drive over and over. Ugh! I was pretty sure I needed to format the new disk, but didn't know how to do it w/o a drive letter.

Thanks!!!!

Phil

(Now I can try installing the other 500GB drive into my wife's old Dell........)

   
Reply to DrThwing

19

raje, on Aug 20, 2009 8:36:32 pm BST

Hi jake, i maxtor 500gb is not detected as drive in mycomputer or disk management. But in USB controller it is showing and green light is glowing. Please help me, i think your frnd fixed that problem.

   
Reply to raje

22

anonymous1234, on Sep 19, 2009 3:48:04 am BST

Same problem. New hard drive in usb enclosure does not show up in My Computer. Followed Nick's procedure and fixed the problem. Thanks Nick

   
Reply to anonymous1234

23

tigergriz, on Sep 19, 2009 9:23:56 am BST

WOW, nice job Billo the tokiwa fat 32 formater program worked, i was afraid I would have to crack open the tower and connect as a slave but the formater seems to be working fine and the surpising thing for me was my usb drive did not show up in my comp. but the formatter has a drop down and you sure do want to choose the correct drive as it was defaulted to my "C" drive, this is great no cracking open the case and hooking up as slave just to format a drive, so freakin windows will see it as a drive via USB.


thanks all.

   
Reply to tigergriz

25

sakura, on Oct 24, 2009 9:54:43 am BST
  • +3

I have a 320GB SATA external hard drive. My friend installed Ubuntu OS in it. Now all of my files are gone. But that's not my prob. My problem is that, it can be detected by Windows but I can't see it on My Computer. It is also listed in the device manager. I can safely remove it, but there's no way I can't access it. Please help me with this.

   
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