USB HD Not seen

[Frank Williams]

USB External drive has a Custom format that was used on a PVR, I
returned the PVR but I would like to use this drive again, Windows Disk
Manager sees it but that's all, how can I recover and format it..?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

USB External drive has a Custom format that was used on a PVR, I
returned the PVR but I would like to use this drive again, Windows Disk
Manager sees it but that's all, how can I recover and format it..?

Simple, you will have to right-click it on Disk Manager, and remove the
old partition/volume, and create a new simple NTFS volume on it.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

USB External drive has a Custom format that was used on a PVR,
I returned the PVR but I would like to use this drive again, Windows
Disk Manager sees it but that's all, how can I recover and format it..?

Just format it in disk management.

 

[Frank Williams]

Just format it in disk management.

Not Visible and no drive letter, lists as Drive 5 Healthy (Unknown
Partition).

The Drive flag 61 looks like its SpeedStore format.


Fixed in the end with SwissKnife

 

[Rod Speed]

Not Visible

You said it was in Disk Management. That's where you
format it, right click on the drive, tell it to format it.

and no drive letter,

Yeah, it wont get one of those optionally until you
format it with a format that Win can recognise.

lists as Drive 5 Healthy (Unknown Partition).

That's fine, just right click on that and format it.

The Drive flag 61 looks like its SpeedStore format.

Fixed in the end with SwissKnife

You could have done it in Disk Management.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Not Visible and no drive letter, lists as Drive 5 Healthy (Unknown
Partition).

There won't be a drive letter till after you format it to a filesystem
which Windows understands, such as FAT32 or NTFS. The Healthy Unknown
Partition is any partition that is not native to Windows. You'll see the
same description of Linux partitions if you have a dual-boot hard drive
with multiple partitions in it. The ones that Windows doesn't understand
are described as Unknown.

Just right-click on the Unknown partition and Windows will delete it for
you. You will then be left with an Unallocated Space in that drive,
which you can then right-click and create what's called a simple volume
on it, which is basically a FAT or NTFS partition.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Frank Williams]

You said it was in Disk Management. That's where you
format it, right click on the drive, tell it to format it.


Yeah, it wont get one of those optionally until you
format it with a format that Win can recognise.


That's fine, just right click on that and format it.



You could have done it in Disk Management.

NO WAY NO OPTION TO FORMAT IT.

 

[Rod Speed]

NO WAY NO OPTION TO FORMAT IT.

WRONG. ITS THERE ONCE YOU DELETE THE EXISTING PARTITION.

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

NO WAY NO OPTION TO FORMAT IT.

You're talking to the village idiot Rod Speed, who doesn't realise that
Windows won't format an unknown partition.

Rod Speed FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/883xp7v

You were very close; you just needed to right-click on the unknown
partition, delete it, then create a new one, right click on that, and a
format option will now appear.