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External HD Formatting

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PAUL161

PAUL161

Great Pumpkin
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I have a 500 Gig external hard drive that I want to format. When setting up to format, it indicates the hd is 32 Gig. What do I need to do to get it back to the 500 Gig status? Have no idea why this happened when I removed all the photos from it and want to format it. PJ
 
How many partitions are on that drive?
 
Not sure Greg, but I think 2. How can I clear all the partitions? I've had this drive on the shelf for quite some time and all I can remember is I had a ton of photos on it and moved them to another drive a couple years ago. PJ
 
I suggest a "low-level" formatting: Instead of an external device, plug it into a desktop as a secondary drive and use something like CopyWipe to "scrape" it. Then format it in whatever file system you will want to use it with.


EDIT: And if this is an IDE drive, you'd be better off using it for a door stop. :wink:
 
It's a SATA drive Doc. Will Copy Wipe work by plugging the HD into a USB port? My desktop has a large TB drive and no hook up for this type drive other than a USB port. My laptops only have space for one drive. ???

Forgot to add, I have a plug in USB converter for SATA drives.
 
I haven't tried it with a USB converter, so not sure.
 
PAUL161 said:
How can I clear all the partitions?
Click to expand...
It's been a few years since I formatted with Windows, so... On Win7 and earlier, I would use Disk Management under the Computer Management section as opposed to right clicking a drive and choosing Format in My Computer. There you can create or delete partitions and logical drives, etc. When you tried the formatting and it said 32GB, can you simply change that value by highlighting it and entering a new number?
 
I'm probably just diluting the soup, but if Paul had been storing photos on that 500G drive, and just moved the photos to another drive ... why would you need to format the 500G drive again?

TM
 
NutmegCT said:
I'm probably just diluting the soup, but if Paul had been storing photos on that 500G drive, and just moved the photos to another drive ... why would you need to format the 500G drive again?

TM
Click to expand...

He just wants to get it back to usable 500GB status is the way I read it.
 
Basils correct. I downloaded and installed "Mini Partition Wizard Tool" and successfully wiped and repartitioned the drive. All I have to do now is format it and I should be good to go. Thanks for all the tips on how to do this, it brought my 500 gig spare drive back to it's original status. :encouragement: PJ
 
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