Hot-swap problem

[niente0]

Hello, my computer has a hot-swap slot to plug SATA hard drives.
When I plug my Seagate ST3500620AS, it is correctly detected by Windows 7 (diskmgmt.msc) and a letter is assigned to it. I tried formatting it (not with quick format) but near the end it fails.

So I downloaded HDDLLF, the problem is that it doesn't recognize the plugged hard disk but only the fixed ones. If I don't see it in the list, how can I format it? (I cannot open the case because it voids warranty)
Is there any workaround to make HDDLLF detect it?

Thanks

[data-medics]

First of all make sure your SATA mode is set to ACHI in BIOS rather than IDE mode. That causes a lot of issues.

Also if it's eSATA that you're using try a shorter cable. Many motherboards have issues if the SATA cable is too long.

And finally if you're just trying to format the drive, try zeroing out the first sector in hexedit. Then refresh the list of drives in disk management. At this point it should think it's a brand new completely blank drive. Initialize it as GPT and create a partition.

Hopefully one of those suggestions fixes your issues.