Can't format hard drive

[Furberboy]

I just received a hard drive from a friend because he couldn't get it working and said i could have it so i'm trying to fix it, i can't format or assign it a letter, Disk management always says "it isn't ready"

Disk part: 
DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online          931 GB      0 B
  Disk 2    Online          119 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 3    Online          232 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 4    Online          232 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 5    Online             0 B      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 5

Disk 5 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> create partition primary

DiskPart has encountered an error: The device is not ready.
See the System Event Log for more information.

 

Wmic says the drive is okay

C:\WINDOWS\system32>wmic
                                                                                                wmic:root\cli>diskdrive get status
Status
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
 

Its a Seagate 2000GB, any ideas? 

[MrMcMuffinJr]

does it show up in "my computer"?

[RAM555789]

Well it says that disk 5 has 0 bytes meaning theres no, storage, meaning it knows theres a disk there but cant access it, check your sata conenctions, and power.

[Furberboy]

1 minute ago, MrMcMuffinJr said:

does it show up in "my computer"?

No doesn't show up in my computer just CMD and disk manager

 

1 minute ago, RAM555789 said:

Well it says that disk 5 has 0 bytes meaning theres no, storage, meaning it knows theres a disk there but cant access it, check your sata conenctions, and power.

Checked and changed cables and tried in my space pc... all the same

[jeffmeyer5295]

1 minute ago, TheMrGaminger said:

No doesn't show up in my computer just CMD and disk manager

 

Checked and changed cables and tried in my space pc... all the same

Have you tried to look for it in the actual disk management program with the GUI? A long shot but worth a try, I've run into this and was able to find it and do what I needed to there for some reason. Also rebooting has helped. Try it in a different pc as well if you have that option. Formatting and cleaning drives is almost literally what I do all day at work

[Furberboy]

1 minute ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

Have you tried to look for it in the actual disk management program with the GUI? A long shot but worth a try, I've run into this and was able to find it and do what I needed to there for some reason. Also rebooting has helped. Try it in a different pc as well if you have that option. Formatting and cleaning drives is almost literally what I do all day at work

yeah I've looked hah 

[Oshino Shinobu]

I'd recommend downloading and running SeaTools to check for issues on the drive.

 

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

[Doramius]

It's showing it is not initialized.  the Disk will not be read until it is initialized.  Right click on the left side where it says, Not Initialized.  The drop down will give you an option to initialize.  Once initialized, you can then choose volume type and format.

 

[Furberboy]

1 minute ago, Doramius said:

It's showing it is not initialized.  the Disk will not be read until it is initialized.

I can't initialise it... thats why its saying Device isn't ready 

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, Doramius said:

It's showing it is not initialized.  the Disk will not be read until it is initialized.

you can do this by selecting the disk in diskpart and typing "cre par pri"

 

(create partition primary)

 

should fix it

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

you can do this by selecting the disk in diskpart and typing "cre par pri"

 

(create partition primary)

 

should fix it

He's already done that. It's in the OP. That's where it shows the error. 

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

He's already done that. It's in the OP. 

so he did, how inattentive of me  at this point i try to format it with gparted, if that doesnt work, i throw the drive in the bin 

[jeffmeyer5295]

6 minutes ago, TheMrGaminger said:

yeah I've looked hah 

 

Yeah, I'd recommend doing what @Oshino Shinobu said and try seatools. Might reveal something else wrong with the drive. Also try a different sata port.

[Doramius]

 

5 minutes ago, TheMrGaminger said:

I can't initialise it... thats why its saying Device isn't ready 

Were you trying to initialize it to MBR or GPT.  Try to GPT first and do a format, then change it back to MBR.  Depending on how the original partition table was created, it might not be able to read it properly to create an MBR.  If this doesn't work, try the following:

1. Just download Bootit Baremetal 
2. make a bootable USB or CD with BBM
3. Startup from this USB or CD
4. Go to "partition manager".
5. Choose problem HDD
6. If "error" , try other setting change "BUS" into "BIOS direct" i.s.o. "BIOS" (upper left dropdown box in partiton screen)
7. Now choose "change disk type" and make it something else (change MBR into GPT) (this will lead to destruction of any unwanted DOS partitions, just "delete" + "clear boot sector" did not suffice for me)
8. It will now be formatted.
9. reboot and your HDD will work in Windows again (if you like you can change GPT into MBR again)

[DnFx91]

10 minutes ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

Have you tried to look for it in the actual disk management program with the GUI? A long shot but worth a try, I've run into this and was able to find it and do what I needed to there for some reason. Also rebooting has helped. Try it in a different pc as well if you have that option. Formatting and cleaning drives is almost literally what I do all day at work

haha life of a comp sys engineer  

 

im sure then you also wonder why windows is such a pig for formatting drives, nothing about it is logical, sometimes you need to use diskpart, sometimes not, sometimes you can format RAW to NTFS, sometimes not, there are 3 different windows for assigning a drive letter which all do different things

 

this is precisely why i always have a mint installation running in my office

[jeffmeyer5295]

2 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

haha life of a comp sys engineer  

 

im sure then you also wonder why windows is such a pig for formatting drives, nothing about it is logical, sometimes you need to use diskpart, sometimes not, sometimes you can format RAW to NTFS, sometimes not, there are 3 different windows for assigning a drive letter which all do different things

 

this is precisely why i always have a mint installation running in my office

Yeah for real. lmao

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

Yeah for real. lmao

oh and the other one, you try to eject an external disk but it's all like NAH BRUH, even though you have clearly ended all processes that were accessing it.

 

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY DRIVE WINDOWS ?????????

 

wrench it out in fury because it's already happened 20 times that day and it's only lunch

[jeffmeyer5295]

3 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

oh and the other one, you try to eject an external disk but it's all like NAH BRUH, even though you have clearly ended all processes that were accessing it.

 

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY DRIVE WINDOWS ?????????

 

wrench it out in fury because it's already happened 20 times that day and it's only lunch

Yeah it says there is an active process going on it, not that there is anything showing, ANYWHERE that it is using it. aside from the secret black magic that it is cursing it with in the background. I honestly rarely eject external drives the correct way. As long as I am not transferring anything or running a program off of it I generally just wing it.

 

[Doramius]

2 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

oh and the other one, you try to eject an external disk but it's all like NAH BRUH, even though you have clearly ended all processes that were accessing it.

 

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY DRIVE WINDOWS ?????????

 

wrench it out in fury because it's already happened 20 times that day and it's only lunch

meh, just rip the drive out and pray that nothing gets corrupted.

 

 

DAMMIT!!!!!

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

Yeah it says there is an active process going on it, not that there is anything showing, ANYWHERE that it is using it. aside from the secret black magic that it is cursing it with in the background. I honestly rarely eject external drives the correct way. As long as I am not transferring anything or running a program off of it I generally just wing it.

 

yeah good logic, i've always had a feeling though it has something to do with how windows handles deleted files on external drives, like it puts it into the "recycle bin cache" or some thing (not proper terminology)

[DnFx91]

2 minutes ago, Doramius said:

meh, just rip the drive out and pray that nothing gets corrupted.

 

 

DAMMIT!!!!!

yeah man this is 9/10 times i plug in a drive at work, no fucks given

 

love working with computers that i don't own, i can get away with being so sloppy hahaaaa

[DnFx91]

4 minutes ago, Doramius said:

meh, just rip the drive out and pray that nothing gets corrupted.

 

 

DAMMIT!!!!!

also, who on earth assigns a drive letter of "N"  

 

i dont know why but thats hilarious to me, unthinkable even

[jeffmeyer5295]

3 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

yeah man this is 9/10 times i plug in a drive at work, no fucks given

 

love working with computers that i don't own, i can get away with being so sloppy hahaaaa

 

5 minutes ago, Doramius said:

meh, just rip the drive out and pray that nothing gets corrupted.

 

 

DAMMIT!!!!!

Haha yeah, in the environments I work in, anything stored on a external usb drive is generally also stored 16 other places. So it is definitely no fucks given.

 

2 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

also, who on earth assigns a drive letter of "N"  

 

i dont know why but thats hilarious to me, unthinkable even

I like to assign random drive letters to peoples things, idk why but I get a kick out of it.  The little things.

 

[Doramius]

5 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

yeah good logic, i've always had a feeling though it has something to do with how windows handles deleted files on external drives, like it puts it into the "recycle bin cache" or some thing (not proper terminology)

You're actually a bit correct on this.  When a drive is connected via USB, it's trash bin is often tied to the main bin.  The cache between the 2 do not always sync properly, and ejecting the drive identifies in incomplete sync with the "recycle bin" over items you're not even caring about anyway....otherwise you wouldn't have trashed it.

 

2 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

also, who on earth assigns a drive letter of "N"  

 

i dont know why but thats hilarious to me, unthinkable even

It's auto-assigned.  I have a lot of RAIDs.  

[DnFx91]

2 minutes ago, Doramius said:

You're actually a bit correct on this.  When a drive is connected via USB, it's trash bin is often tied to the main bin.  The cache between the 2 do not always sync properly, and ejecting the drive identifies in incomplete sync with the "recycle bin" over items you're not even caring about anyway....otherwise you wouldn't have trashed it.

 

It's auto-assigned.  I have a lot of RAIDs.  

oh cool, i think i noticed it because when i delete a file on an external drive, the recycle bin on my desktop would show the "full" icon but with nothing actually in the folder, and if i emptied the recycle bin, then ejected the drive, it would almost always fail.

 

Would have thought R: for RAID no ?   i got my 2 ssd's assigned to R: