Portable Drive Wants ReFormat

[fullbug]

Hi, awhile back I bought a Seagate 320G portable hard drive, for whatever reason It needed to be formatted before I could use it, so I figured out how to do that, and have been using it ever since for backing up my laptop and desktop stuff, have used about 100G of it.....

But now out of the blue, when I plug it in it says it needs to be reformatted, I dont understand how this could happen and if I reformat it will I not lose everything thats on it?

I'm having a stroke, is there anything I can do besides reformatting and any ideas what would cause this? I'm on Windows XP pro on both computers......

[Spoiler]

What happens when you plug it into another computer?

[fullbug]

What happens when you plug it into another computer?

I cannot test that, my laptop is out being repaired, I may be able to test it on someone else's computer later in the day though.....

[patio]

It sounds like it's been unplugged prematurely 1 too many times...your data may be gone.

[truenorth]

Patio has probably found the basis of your problem.However just to elaborate (in the hope that you will gain the knowledge to prevent this occurring again). When you wish to remove your removable drive from it's USB connection it is advisable to go through the" safely remove"procedure before disconnecting it. You may get away with not doing it sometimes (  less so if it is still being accessed when the disconnect is performed).Your drive is now more than likely being seen as a "new" drive. Are you familiar with that process?truenorth

[fullbug]

That could be the problem, not sure, the wife was the last one to use it....

[patio]

Check in Disk Managenent and rite clik the HDD and select Properties...
Report your findings...
For DM rite clik My Computer...select Manage...then Disk Management

[fullbug]

OK, got my repaired laptop back, so I try to open it there and when I go to my computer, and click on it, I get the 'needs to be formatted' message, if I click to reformat I get 2 choices, 'exFAT' and 'NTFS', when I choose exFAT I get 'Windows was unable to complete the format.....
I also tried what it says to do here- http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/
But it says its already in FAT32 format and seems to be staying at 0%....



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[Computer_Commando]

Try Easus Partition Master Home Edition:  http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
It's been a while since I formatted my USB 320GB in FAT32.
http://www.ntfs.com/exfat-comparison.htm

[fullbug]

I tried the Easus Partition Master, but it seems to be stopped at 40% is there something else in that program I can try?

[Computer_Commando]

Delete partition, then create partition, then format partition.  Could be partition table is hosed.

[fullbug]

Do I create as 'logical' or 'primary'?

[Computer_Commando]

Primary

[fullbug]

*censored*, I created a new partition in FAT32 format, and it said it formatted successfully, but still get the 'needs to be formatted' when I  try to get into the drive, and the program says the drive is 'Unformatted' as seen below, I dont understand it....
By the way, thanx for the help Computer_Commando.....


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[Computer_Commando]

You have created partition, now your must format partition.
Select "G" with left mouse button, then right-click, select "Format"

Partitioning is separate & distinct from formatting.