Windows 10: Cannot format USB external drive.

I used a 32GB external USB drive to run a linux distro off.

This worked fine but when I wanted to reformat the USB to be used as a normal storage device, it did not appear in the 'Devices and Drivers' part of File Explorer.

I attempted to use Disk Management, which it appeared on, to format it but it always give me the error "The system cannot find the file specified".

I tried to use diskpart to clean it and format it but I receive the error "DiskPart has encountered an error: Access is denied. See the System Event Log for more information."

So I check the Event Viewer and I see "Cannot zero sectors on disk \\?\PhysicalDrive2. Error code: 5@0101000F"

I have also tried all this with all non-Microsoft services disabled in MS-CONFIG and I have tried it on a different computer.

I then used a 3rd party partition software, and when I used that to reassign the disk letter it worked fine. But if I ejected the disk or attempted to format it/use any of the aforementioned troubleshooting steps, I receive the same errors.


I also put a file on the drive after reassigning the disk letter, and when I restarted the PC and reassigned the disk letter. The file was still there and had not been affected


Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated as I have run out of ideas.

:)

 

want to Format a La Cie External Drive Because the Software Genie 9 has too many versions of backup.

Hello,

To format an external USB or an external hard drive you can easily do it by accessing Computer Management. For us to assist you, we suggest that you follow the steps listed below:

• Press the Start button.
• Type Computer Management.
• On the left side, click on Disk Management under Storage.
• Locate the drive that you want to format.
• Once located, right-click on the drive and choose Format.

If the hard drive has not been formatted with the steps that we have provided above, we recommend that you contact the manufacturer of your hard drive. Some hard drive requires a software that you'll need to use just to format it.

Let us know how it goes and if you need further assistance, feel free to post back.

 

Format an external Drive.

Hello Roger,

Thank you for posting your concern in Microsoft Community and welcome to the Windows 10 Family.

I would suggest you to follow the below steps to format the drive you are referring to.

• Right Click on Start menu and select Open Computer Management.
  
• 
  In the left pane, under Storage, click Disk Management.
  
• 
  Right-click the volume that you want to format, and then click Format.
  
• 
  To format the volume with the default settings, in the Format dialog box, click
  OK, and then click OK again.
  

Note: You cannot format a disk or partition that is currently in use, including the partition that contains Windows.

Hope it helps.

Thank you.

 

help. USB drive isn't assigned a drive letter.

Any usb flash drive I plug into my computer isn't assigned a drive letter. The physical drive shows in the "safely remove hardware" but it doesnt show up in disk management. I have tried to populate the volume thru the safely remove hardware properties window and it does pop up in the list but it doesn't stay there. This isn't a format or assign a letter problem. It's more complicated then that. Maybe one of the services needed for usb drive management was disabled? Suggestions needed. btw external usb harddrives work fine.