Can't access external hard drive

[shield1984]

Ok so I'll start right from the beginning but be s brief as possible. So I bought a new seagate 2tb 3.5" SSHD for my ps4 (don't worry I already have the dongcoh game bar adapter to use this) after trying to run the ps4 update file from my memory stick countless times, I came to the conclusion my new hard drive needed formatting. So I took out the gut of one of my external hdd and replaced it with the new one. Windows installed it as usual but it didn't show up on my computer. After some digging I found it in disk management. It has several partitions all saying healthy and active but I am unable to delete, format, assign drive letter or anything else. I've tried using official seagate discwizard but that doesn't seem to format my drive in any way shape or form either. Is there anyway I can completely wipe this drive, maybe using Ms dos and ready format it to fat32 so I can use it with my ps4? Many thanks in advance

 

[SpyderTracks]

Windows disk management is pretty useless especially if the disk is using an alternative file structure.

I'd recommend easeus partition manager (free). It's excellent. http://www.partition-tool.com

Be warned you have to manually deselect bloat ware on install.

 

[ubuysa]

You could try the diskpart command (in an elevated command prompt in Windows). The sequence of your diskpart commands should be:

C:\> diskpart

DISKPART> list disk (you'll see a list of the disks Windows recognises each one identified with a number, note the number for the disk you're having problems with)

DISKPART> sel disk 0 (where 0 is the number of the disk you're having problems with, this disk is now the target of all future commands)

Warning! Be certain diskpart's focus is set to the correct disk before proceeding, the next command will delete everything on the disk with focus.

DISKPART> clean (this will remove all partitions and all data from the disk with focus)

DISKPART> create part primary (this will create a single primary partition the size of the disk with focus)

DISKPART> exit (ends the diskpart session)

You can now format the partition as normal and then use the disk normally. (You can format it within diskpart but to be honest the quicker you can get out of diskpart the less likely you are to do damage!).