How to Fix Unformatted Hard Drives in Windows 11/10/8/7 Easily?
- Overview of external hard drive not formatted error
- How to fix unformatted hard drives in Windows 11/10/8/7 easily?
- Method 1: try the hard drive on another PC and fix the device drivers
- Method 2: check the hard drive for errors with Windows built-in tool
- Method 3: backup data and format the hard drive via a handy freeware
- Conclusion
Overview of external hard drive not formatted error
Formatting a hard drive is necessary to make it accessible to users, and it involves creating a file system such as NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT. However, if the file system of an external hard drive becomes corrupted, it can result in an unformatted error, causing a message to appear stating that the drive needs to be formatted.
"The disk in drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"
"You need to format the disk in drive F: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?"
Corrupted file systems and unformatted hard drives can be caused by four main reasons. Firstly, a power surge or electrical spike can damage the file system, leading to corruption. Secondly, physical damage to the hard drive, such as a drop or spill, can cause the file system to become corrupted.
• If you're in the middle of copying files to an external drive and the power goes out, it's likely that the transfer will be interrupted and you may lose some or all of the data that was being copied. This is because the external drive is not a battery-powered device and relies on the power supply from the computer to function.
• Abrupt removal of the external drive from the USB port
• Bad sectors
• Virus attacks
If your external hard drive says it needs to be formatted, it's likely due to a corrupted file system or a driver issue. To resolve this, try running a disk check on the drive using the built-in Check Disk (chkdsk) utility on Windows or the Disk Utility app on a Mac.
How to fix unformatted hard drives in Windows 11/10/8/7 easily?
To avoid data loss, develop good computer habits such as using "Safely Remove Hardware" to disconnect external hard drives and regularly checking for viruses. If your hard drive becomes unformatted, you can try fixing it in Windows 10/8/7 using one of three methods.
- Method 1: try the hard drive on another PC and fix the device drivers
- Method 2: check the hard drive for errors with Windows built-in tool
- Method 3: backup data and format the hard drive via a handy freeware
Method 1: try the hard drive on another PC and fix the device drivers
If your PC can't read the hard drive, try connecting it to another PC to see if it works. If it does, the issue might be with the device drivers on your computer. You can try reinstalling or updating the drivers to fix the problem.
1. Right click on the Start icon and select Device Manager.
2. To uninstall an external hard drive, locate the device, right-click on it, select "Uninstall" from the menu, and then safely disconnect the drive when the process is complete.
3. In most cases, after restarting your computer and connecting the hard drive, the drivers will start installing automatically.
If the drive is also shown unformatted on another PC, then the issue is likely with the drive itself, and you may need to use a third-party tool to format it or seek professional help to diagnose and fix the problem.
Method 2: check the hard drive for errors with Windows built-in tool
Windows has an inbuilt mechanism for hard disk recovery that can help you check internal and external drives for errors. If Windows doesn't automatically ask you to scan a drive when you connect it, you can run the drive scanning manually by following the steps.
1. To access the properties of an external hard drive, open "This PC/Computer", find the external hard drive, right-click on it, and select "Properties" from the expanded menu.
2. To check for errors in a document, click on the "Tools" tab and then click on the "Check" button under the "Error-checking" section.
3. If the system detects errors, you'll be asked to check the disk. If no errors are found, you'll see a message saying "You don't need to scan this drive." However, you can still choose to scan the drive by clicking on "Scan drive."
4. Wait for the scanning process to be finished. On completion, Windows will display a message. If no errors are found, it will say so. If errors are found, you will get a message saying to restart your computer to repair the file system, and you can choose to restart immediately or schedule the error fixing on next restart.
If the external hard drive unformatted error is still unsolved, please go to Method 3. If you're still encountering issues, you may want to try formatting the drive using a different method, such as using the built-in formatting feature in Windows or macOS.
Method 3: backup data and format the hard drive via a handy freeware
To fix unformatted hard drives, you can follow the on-screen prompt to format them, but this will result in total data loss. It's essential to back up your files before formatting. If you encounter the error "Windows was unable to complete the format," a freeware like Qiling Disk Master Standard can be helpful.
Qiling Disk Master allows you to resize, move, merge, and format partitions with ease, and supports all Windows PC operating systems, including Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
Step 1. Connect an external drive to your computer, ensure it's detected, and then download, install, and launch Qiling Disk Master.
Step 2. Select the external drive and click on the "Format" button.
Step 3. In the pop-up window, you can name the drive by editing the "Partition Label" and choose a file system based on your needs.
Step 4. 1. Safely disconnect your drive after the operation is completed.
Conclusion
You can efficiently fix unformatted hard drives in Windows 10/8/7 using Qiling Disk Master. If Windows fails to format a drive, this tool can rescue you. It can also help with inaccessible boot device issues on Windows 10 SSDs and solve MBR2GPT validation failed errors. Give it a try and enjoy its features now!
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