[DarkSchalie]

Everytime I try format my external hard drive, it gives me "Windows was unable to complete the format". This isn't like a Free Agent external hard drive, it's a hard drive that I put in an enclosure, just an fyi. The only thing I could format was the recovery partition (this was my old hard drive), which was about 30 GB. Still unable to format the 280 GB partition. I seriously need it since I'm running out of room on my hard drive. Any help would be needed ^_^.

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Hi DarkSchalie

Try wiping the HDD with DBAN first http://www.dban.org/
If it manages to wipe the drive before you using it do a Windows Full NTFS format first.
What brand of HDD is it?

[phillpower2]

Hi DarkSchalie

Try wiping the HDD with DBAN first http://www.dban.org/
If it manages to wipe the drive before you using it do a Windows Full NTFS format first.
What brand of HDD is it?

[DarkSchalie]

Hi DarkSchalie

Try wiping the HDD with DBAN first http://www.dban.org/
If it manages to wipe the drive before you using it do a Windows Full NTFS format first.
What brand of HDD is it?

Alright, I'll try this later, busy at the moment.

It's a Western Digital.

[phillpower2]

Ok we will look out for an update.
You could also try WD own formatting tool and I would suggest that you run a diagnostic on the drive before saving data to it, just a precautionary measure http://www.tacktech....fm?ttid=287#wdc

[DarkSchalie]

Ok we will look out for an update.
You could also try WD own formatting tool and I would suggest that you run a diagnostic on the drive before saving data to it, just a precautionary measure http://www.tacktech....fm?ttid=287#wdc

Well I was able to format it, and it's usable now, but the diagnostic tool tells me that there is too much bad sectors. Looks like I'll have to run chkdsk?

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update, you could also try running the diagnostic tool a couple more times.

[DarkSchalie]

Thanks for the update, you could also try running the diagnostic tool a couple more times.

Just finished running chkdsk and it fixed the bad stuff.

Running the diagnostic tool at the moment.

[phillpower2]

Positive news

[DarkSchalie]

Positive news

It's working!

Thanks for the help.

Time to watch the solar eclipse

[phillpower2]

You are welcome and I am glad you got it sorted

Enjoy the eclipse