[ripslymemc]

Hello, I have a Seagate 7200.11 160GB I bought from Newegg, and a Rosewill External HD Enclosure. The hard drive will not work in the enclosure, and I'm fairly sure it's the drive's problem. I tested the enclosure on different computers with different ports, and I even used Seatools, and they couldn't even detect my drive. Luckily, I checked my warranty via Seagate and I have an option to return/exchange it. However, I just noticed a sticker inside the enclosure (!ATTN: New HDD Must Be Formatted Before Use), which caught my eye immediately because the drive was not formatted. I thought that was funny, because I needed a way to connect the hard drive to the computer to format it, so then I could use it as an external HD.

I'm completely lost, I don't know what to do. How do I format the drive? I'm thinking of simply returning the drive, so I can deal with the next HD with the knowledge that it has to work, because it was just sent from the manufacturer.

Please help!

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Plug the drive in and switch it on.
Then go to Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management. You can format it from there.

[Neil Jones]

Plug the drive in and switch it on.
Then go to Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management. You can format it from there.

[ripslymemc]

Hi, when I did it in Disk Management, I got a "Cyclic redundancy error" or something like that, and the drive only shows up as 3.86GB, which is clearly not the correct amount of storage because it is 160gb.

Edited by ripslymemc, 16 October 2010 - 11:43 AM.

[SpywareDr]

Sounds like it may be a flaky enclosure.

Edited by SpywareDr, 17 October 2010 - 07:10 AM.

[ripslymemc]

The thing is - I bought the drive well over a year ago, and I just left it there, with no covering or anything. It wasn't even in a drawer, so it might have mutated a bit. The enclosure is completely new. Should I go ahead and get a replacement drive from Seagate?

[SpywareDr]

Don't believe I've ever heard of a mutating hard drive. Corrosion maybe.

I'd test the hard drive with a different adapter or enclosure first. And/or test the enclosure with a different hard drive.

[ripslymemc]

Hi, the thing is, I only have one spare hard drive and one adapter, the rest are on the computers. Seagate replaces HDs for free, right? I', still under warranty.

[SpywareDr]

Yes, reputable manufacturers honor their warranties.

You usually have to pay shipping though.