Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Disk not recognized after an unsuccessful format attempt

September 1st, 2019, 15:54

Hey guys, I don't know where else to look for a solution, so I decided to ask to the experts.

I have an external case for 3.5-inch SATA drives, and a Seagate 1tb SATA disk.

At first the disk worked perfect, could access its directories, files, etc.

The problem arose when I wanted to format it ... in the middle of the process the format froze and I had to disconnect it. From that moment on, the disk is no longer recognized.

I have tried the case with another disk and it works, so it is undoubtedly the disk.

In windows I have tried all kinds of tutorials out there, but the disk dosen't appear.. nor in the windows disk management, or running the 'diskpart' followed by the 'list disk' command. In fact, when I plug the usb Windows says that "USB device not recognized"... as I said, with other disks, the external case works perfectly.

I have tried on pc and mac.

The disk when connected does not seems to have any "physical" problem since it makes no strange noise and it shows that it is working (common hdd sound).

I have no interest in recovering the info, I just want the OS to recognize it so I can format it and use it.

Does anyone have any clue as to what could have happened?

Any help is very welcome.

Re: Disk not recognized after an unsuccessful format attempt

September 1st, 2019, 16:20

My guess drive has bad sector. And probably heads gone now.
Seagate=headache

Re: Disk not recognized after an unsuccessful format attempt

September 1st, 2019, 17:26

Would suggest checking SMART attributes.
Could use CrystalDiskInfo or HDDScan, or both to confirm results from each.

Re: Disk not recognized after an unsuccessful format attempt

September 2nd, 2019, 19:50

I cannot manage to use CrystalDiskInfo or HDDScan because the PC doesn't even recognized the disk on the external case.. it says "USB device not recognized" so the disk doesn't even appear on the 'choose disk' dropdowns :|

Re: Disk not recognized after an unsuccessful format attempt

September 6th, 2019, 22:38

Time to move on then. It is not reliable for further use.

Re: Disk not recognized after an unsuccessful format attempt

September 11th, 2019, 15:34

I was going to recommend HDD low level format, however, I think the previous poster is correct. HDD LLF can overcome logical failure, probably not a physical failure.
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