drive won't format

I just added a 640WDAAKS hdd back into my system. Last time I knew it worked fine, and it has not been used a lot. At first it showed up fine when I put it in my external usb enclosure, and I went to copy some files onto it. At this very moment as I just reinstalled mobo and was getting oc set, I had a lock up and had to reset pc. After that drive didn't show up in Computer, so I looked in device mgr, and there it was, but without drive letter assignment. Tried to add drive letter, it gave me an error to refresh and/or restart device mgr, which I did, but got same error several times. I then tried to delete volume, and reformat drive. It lets me delete volume, but then get similar error "the operation failed to complete because the Disk Mgmt console view is not up to date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close the Disk Mgmt console, then restart, or restart computer." I tried both with same results.

Is my drive hosed? seems unlikely as it worked fine last time I used it, and it's just been sitting in an empty case, prob for 4-6 months, at most. I can't think of anything else to do with it.

Thanks for any help,
rlr

that's weird; have you tried a flash drive, or any USB device in the same USB slot that was attached to?

Otherwise, how about connect the HD directly to the MoBo (remove from enclosure) and see if it's accessible. Maybe the enclosure's controller (IDE/SATA?) got hosed.

Whichever, connected internally/externally, try HD Tune on it and see what Info/Health data is visible. I bet the drive itself is just fine, but some communications mixup is being a PITA

DrStrangeBrew said:

that's weird; have you tried a flash drive, or any USB device in the same USB slot that was attached to?

Otherwise, how about connect the HD directly to the MoBo (remove from enclosure) and see if it's accessible. Maybe the enclosure's controller (IDE/SATA?) got hosed.

Whichever, connected internally/externally, try HD Tune on it and see what Info/Health data is visible. I bet the drive itself is just fine, but some communications mixup is being a PITA

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for reply,
first I tried connecting to different usb port directly on pc, was on hub, no go though, so unhooked one of the drives in my case temporarily and connected drive in question, booted up, and it showed up fine, so I formatted it, and then had to remove from case (well, cardboard box next to case, lol). I then did try the enclosure once more, thinking wtf maybe something from it locking up on me earlier, causing, as you say, a communication error, but no go, same results as before. The weird, or not so weird, thing is that I just removed a drive from that enclosure yesterday, which was operating totally normal, can't think of what would have happened to it, too bad cuz it's my only 1TB capable enclosure. Now I have the drive (in question) in a different usb enclosure, and it seems to be perfectly normal, just about to start copying files to it.

Thanks,
rlr

side question, for anybody- I have usb cables that came with a couple, can't remember if all, of my usb enclosures that have, idk exactly what it is, some type of resistor, or something, the little cylindrical fitting that goes around cable next to plug, and I'm wondering what that accomplishes, and if it's necessary to have, or more importantly, bad to not have, or if I can replace with longer cable, or if I lose one. This enclosure I'm mentioning in post, that appears to be shot, did not have one of those type of cables any time lately, and don't remember if it originally did.
Is this something important?
rlr