How to re-format an external hard drive

[Mark0]

Used a portable hard drive to transfer programming to a replacement receiver. Now Id like to use that hard drive again in my pc, but Windows doesn't seem able to format it. Is there a tool or software to do this?

Thanks in advance.

[hawker152]

what happens when you right click on the drive when you open up "my computer"? there should be a button to reformat. Depending on what drive it is, most brands have a utility you can download from the web to do this. Its usually a bunch of programs but one of them should do it.

[Magic Static]

Depending on the OS...Control panel, Administrative tools, computer management, disk management. The drive should show up here and may need to be initialized first so you can work with it.

[Mark0]

Windoes recognized it, but it didn't show up in file explorer, so I went through the process of initializing the drive and giving it a drive letter. Now going to format it and see if that works.

Thanks for the help. Hopefully it is recognized after this by the notebook it is going in. No luck so far.

[TonyT@DISH Network]

As Magic Static mentioned you need to go into the Control Panel and do it from the administrative tools there. It is the only place where you can get to the drive and select reformat once it has been formatted to DISH Network equipment. If you are looking to partition it you can do it all from that screen. Normally that "snap in" will list very few options when you right click on the EHD. I have seen that sometimes you have to "Delete Partition" because the drive still has a small amount of space not dedicated to DISH Network.

[DishSubLA]

As Magic Static mentioned you need to go into the Control Panel and do it from the administrative tools there. It is the only place where you can get to the drive and select reformat once it has been formatted to DISH Network equipment. If you are looking to partition it you can do it all from that screen. Normally that "snap in" will list very few options when you right click on the EHD. I have seen that sometimes you have to "Delete Partition" because the drive still has a small amount of space not dedicated to DISH Network.

Great response! Nice having Dish Team here.

[Veronica Dee]

As Magic Static mentioned you need to go into the Control Panel and do it from the administrative tools there. It is the only place where you can get to the drive and select reformat once it has been formatted to DISH Network equipment. If you are looking to partition it you can do it all from that screen. Normally that "snap in" will list very few options when you right click on the EHD. I have seen that sometimes you have to "Delete Partition" because the drive still has a small amount of space not dedicated to DISH Network.

Was curious what version of Windows was being used. I have XP, Vista Home Premium and 7 as well as Linux Mint 9. Under which one were you able to get this accomplished? I have my hard drive hooked up to the Vista PC now but there isn't an option to select a drive for it or intialize it. I can see it once it added the snap in, see that the 722 partitioned the heck out of it but do I delete the volumes and then try to reformat or what? Going to hook it up the XP one now. Please advise - I'd like to get my 2 TB hard drive back while I spend the weekend burning DVDs of Caprica while taking online midterms.

I formatted the external to dump my 722 to it when I called Dish back to see what to do next (3/18/2011) and was told that I had to pay a $40 fee. WHAT????

[thomasjk]

Click Start-->Right Click on Computer and select Manage. Then select Disk Management. Right click on the drive and select Format.

[dfergie]

I've done it with Vista.

[TonyT@DISH Network]

From what I know, it is identical on all three O/S'. Might make it easier to switch to classic view, as I still get stumped on the "helpful" change they made to Control Panel.