How do I reinitialize hard disks

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gilgamesh
  • Start date Start date
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Gilgamesh

I have just purchased two new external USB drives (Coolermaster XCraft SATA
model and Western Digital 320Gb drives).

I plugged the first one in and went into disk management where the
initialise wizard came up so I initialised the drive and started formatting.

While formatting I plugged the second one in and I think this is where
things started to go wrong as when I initialised the second disk the first
one disappeared from the Disk Management console.

I can use each disk independently but when I plug both in I get a USB config
error on the second drive saying that there is already an identically
configured device on the system. Deleting the USB drivers and restarting
the PC has no effect on the problem.

I figured I would go back to the beginning and reinitialise the disks and
then reformat to see if this helps but I can't figure out the reinitialise
steps

The XP Help file says to initialise disks do the following
To initialize new disks
1.. Open Computer Management (Local).
2.. In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?

a.. Computer Management (Local)
b.. Storage
c.. Disk Management
3.. Right-click the disk you want to initialize, and then click Initialize
Disk.
4.. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize.
If you are running Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, you can select whether to
use the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition
style.

The disk is initialized as a basic disk.


But when right clicking on one of these already initialised drives there is
no initialise menu option.

How can I force a reinitialise of these two drives?

Thanks
 
Gilgamesh said:
I have just purchased two new external USB drives (Coolermaster XCraft SATA
model and Western Digital 320Gb drives).

I plugged the first one in and went into disk management where the
initialise wizard came up so I initialised the drive and started
formatting.

While formatting I plugged the second one in and I think this is where
things started to go wrong as when I initialised the second disk the first
one disappeared from the Disk Management console.

I can use each disk independently but when I plug both in I get a USB
config error on the second drive saying that there is already an
identically configured device on the system. Deleting the USB drivers and
restarting the PC has no effect on the problem.

I figured I would go back to the beginning and reinitialise the disks and
then reformat to see if this helps but I can't figure out the reinitialise
steps

The XP Help file says to initialise disks do the following
To initialize new disks
1.. Open Computer Management (Local).
2.. In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?

a.. Computer Management (Local)
b.. Storage
c.. Disk Management
3.. Right-click the disk you want to initialize, and then click
Initialize Disk.
4.. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize.
If you are running Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, you can select whether to
use the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition
style.

The disk is initialized as a basic disk.


But when right clicking on one of these already initialised drives there
is no initialise menu option.

How can I force a reinitialise of these two drives?

Thanks
Click to expand...


Gilgamesh:
First of all I'm assuming that there's no data on the HDDs in question so
that we need not be concerned with salvaging data, right?

Perhaps at this point the most straightforward way to resolve the problem is
to remove the HDDs from their enclosures (I'm not clear on whether you have
two external enclosures and two HDDs or one external enclosure with two
HDDs, or just one HDD?). Anyway, no matter.

Assuming what you want to do is to "go back to the beginning and
reinitialise the disks and then reformat (the disks)", do this...

Remove the HDD from its enclosure and install it as a secondary HDD in your
PC and access Disk Management. If the HDD has not been initialized, DM will
generate the "Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard" message and you can go
through the initialization process followed by the partitioning/formatting
process.

If that message does not appear, but there's an indication that the HDD has
actually not been initialized - on the bottom half of the DM window where
the HDDs are listed - presumably Disk 1 (your boot HDD) and Disk 2 -
right-click in the block of the Disk 2 listing. A submenu should open with
an "Initialize Disk" menu item.

If DM indicates the HDD has already been initialized - a partition has been
created and possibly formatted - then delete the partition, create another
partition or partitions, and format same. Then shut down the machine;
reinstall the HDD in your enclosure, and boot to determine all is well.

Assuming all goes well, disconnect the external device, shut down the
machine, and repeat the process with your other HDD & enclosure (assuming we
are talking about two HDDs & two enclosures).
Anna
 
Try this, don't know if it will help or not. I have had to do this with a
set of SimpleTech external enclosures to get them to work properly.

Start with a freshly rebooted system with no external drives connected.

Insert one drive into a USB port and make sure you can access it on whatever
drive letter is assigned. Once that is done, reassign the drive to a
different drive letter and then "Safely remove hardware" and unplug the
drive. Plug in the second drive in a different USB port (not a hub). If it
is accessed as the original drive letter and functional, you should now be
able to plug in the first drive and use both. If it takes the changed drive
letter of the first drive you won't be able to use two drives together as
the computer can't differentiate between the two physical enclosures as the
hardware "addresses" are the same.

Let us know if this helps.
 
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