[Flame0103]

So I've recently bought a Buffalo Mini Station with 500gb of space and I'm trying to format it using the disk management, but I don't have the option to "delete entire partition of disk", but I'm guessing it's because it's not initialized, but when I try to do that, a window pops up saying that the "disk is not ready". Any way to fix this? At the top portion of the disk management system, the drive shows up as Utility_HD-PXU2" and it states that the partition is "Healthy", but that it's "unallocated"

Also I think I might be confusion the drives, their are two drives that show up at the bottom portion of of the disk management when I plug in the HDD: Disk 1 (which is the one I'm talking about at the top) and CD-Rom 7. What's CD-Rom 7 for? Is CD-Rom 7 the actual HDD or is it something else all together? I only have one CD-Rom which shows up as "CD-Rom 0", so I don't know where CD-Rom's 1 - 6 went. It states on disk management that it's the "primary partition" if that's any help.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE:

I figured out that my external hard drive was actually encrypted by someone before I bought it, which explains why it was at such a reduced price. I couldn't initialize the drive since I don't know the password, so my new question is how do I format an encrypted external hard drive? Thanks.

Edited by Flame0103, 17 March 2010 - 05:11 PM.

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I would try something like Dban (In my signature). Just be sure you have the correct drive because it security wipes the drive.

Before you try that get a screen shot of device manager so I can take a look at it.

123runner

[123Runner]

I would try something like Dban (In my signature). Just be sure you have the correct drive because it security wipes the drive.

Before you try that get a screen shot of device manager so I can take a look at it.

123runner

[Flame0103]

Thank you for responding, unfortunatly I don't have the drive anymore as I decided to simply exchange it at the store for a new one. I was right though, it was encrypted by the previous owner and had a password so I couldn't initialize it, as the store clerk there check the drive for me to make sure it wasn't broken or anything. So I have a new one and that's the last time I buy a USED external HDD at Fry's, but thanks for responding as soon as you can.