When Formatting External HDD with NTFS, it comes up as RAW

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ianmeister
  • Start date Start date
I

Ianmeister

Hello,

I have an internal IDE HDD that I have put in an USB external enclosure and
connected to my Dell Vista laptop. When I attempt to format the drive in
Computer Management, I assign it a letter and format with NTFS. However, the
result is a Healthy Partition in RAW format. When I try to attempt to
reformat using quick format, sometimes it will format it again as RAW, or it
will give me an error message stating that Windows cannot format the drive.
Again, the HDD shows up as a Simple, Basic, Healthy(Primary Partition) with a
RAW File System. I cannot access the drive and put files on it.

Please help. Thanks.
 
I don't understand how it became RAW in the first place. It's a brand new
drive and exactly like other drives that I have put together and installed.
It just won't let me format it. Crazy.
 
I was able to reformat the drive with FAT32. However, I received the
following errors when I attempted the conversion to NTFS. It states thay it
cannot create the elementary file system structures. What does this mean?
Thanks.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>convert f: /fs:ntfs
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is 2D30-5E79
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
199,093,056 KB total disk space.
199,093,024 KB are available.

32,768 bytes in each allocation unit.
6,221,658 total allocation units on disk.
6,221,657 allocation units available on disk.

Determining disk space required for file system conversion...
Total disk space: 199141679 KB
Free space on volume: 199093024 KB
Space required for conversion: 313488 KB
Cannot create the elementary file system structures.
 
Ianmeister said:
Hello,

I have an internal IDE HDD that I have put in an USB external enclosure and
connected to my Dell Vista laptop. When I attempt to format the drive in
Computer Management, I assign it a letter and format with NTFS. However, the
result is a Healthy Partition in RAW format. When I try to attempt to
reformat using quick format, sometimes it will format it again as RAW, or it
will give me an error message stating that Windows cannot format the drive.
Again, the HDD shows up as a Simple, Basic, Healthy(Primary Partition) with a
RAW File System. I cannot access the drive and put files on it.
Click to expand...

Things to try:

Remove all partitions from the drive and create a new one.

If the drive is >128GB then there are problems with old
enclosures. Then try to create a 120GB partition. If this
works, then the enclosure hat a 128GB limit.


Uwe
 
Thanks, but that didn't wotk either.

Uwe Sieber said:
Things to try:

Remove all partitions from the drive and create a new one.

If the drive is >128GB then there are problems with old
enclosures. Then try to create a 120GB partition. If this
works, then the enclosure hat a 128GB limit.


Uwe
Click to expand...
 
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