Windows 10: How do I format my external hard drive to successfully install qubesOS?

I have a brand new ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop with Windows 11 and a brand new 2TB WD My Passport external hard drive. I am trying to format the external hard drive so I can install qubesOS on it and boot from it via the BIOS menu. I successfully formatted the disk by right-clicking it in File Explorer, but in Disk Management, there is an additional unlabeled volume, that appears before the EFI System Partition and my successfully formatted volume, that I cannot interact with. It doesn't have a letter assigned to it, is blue, 6.07 GB RAW, and "Healthy Basic Data Partition". When using "diskpart"

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Formatting External hard drive.

1. Launch the Disk Manager with diskmgmt.msc
2. Use right-clicks to delete all partitions on the external disk
3. Create one or several new partitions
4. Format them

 

Formatting External hard drive

Hi,

I'm trying to reformat an external hard drive I own, when I go to disk management and right click the drive their is no format option. Not like it is grayed out and cannot click on it, it just isn't there. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

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.