Author Topic: Reformat External Drive?  (Read 1701 times)

Hotkey

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Reformat External Drive?
« on: May 11, 2018, 12:37:53 PM »
I have a Buffalo Ext HD - was used as an encrypted Truecrypt Ext HD.  No longer needs to be and files are also not needed.  I tried to use Disk Management Util in Windows 10 to remove the 2 volumes listed in the drive but only the larger can be removed. The smaller EFI SYstem partition of 200 MB cannot be acted upon. The action menu lists Delete and others but nothing happens.

So does Buffalo (or some other creator) have a utility that can either remove the volume or change its attributes somehow so that it can be?

Thanks for any help!

Texturtle

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Re: Reformat External Drive?
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2018, 02:04:13 PM »
Windows has a way to completely clear a drive. You have to use the diskpart command line utility.

https://www.buffalotech.com/knowledge-base/cleaning-a-disk-in-windows-7-using-diskpart

The title says Windows 7 but it works in 8 and 10 as well.

Hotkey

  • Calf
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Re: Reformat External Drive?
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2018, 04:37:31 PM »
I don't think its showing me what I need to see. I have this configuration:

Disk 0 - 100 MB Healthy (EFI System Partition) - 238 GB NTFS Healthy (Boot etc) - 1 GB Healthy (Recovery Partition)
Disk 1 - 200 MB Healthy (EFI System Partition) - 3726 GB Unallocated
Disk 2 - 5589 GB NTFS Healthy (Primary partition)

The tutorial you refer to produces:
Disk 0 - Size 238 GB - Free 0
Disk 1 - Size 3726 GB - Free 3725 GB
Disk 2 - Size 5589 GB - Free 0 GB

So, running Diskpart/List Disk does not list all the volumes on the drives. I don't see the 200 MB volume on Disk 1 which is the problem.

What can I do?

Texturtle

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Re: Reformat External Drive?
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2018, 05:01:06 PM »
list disk doesn't list volumes, it only lists disks. So if the disk you want is listed as disk 1 in disk management, it's also disk 1 in diskpart. Once you select that disk, you can do a "list part" to list partitions on that disk.

Hotkey

  • Calf
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Re: Reformat External Drive?
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2018, 12:09:15 PM »
I think that did it! Its 1 single volume now and am running Format as we "speak". Thanks so much for the great help!

Texturtle

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Re: Reformat External Drive?
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2018, 03:27:31 PM »
Glad that helped.