I have an 80gb hd from an old E-Machines.  I purchased an external hd case, and would like to use the hd as external storage.  I know I have to format it to use it, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.  My computer won't recognize it.  How can I format the hd so I can use it?
212695
Sparky's answers would be right, if your computer just "couldn't see" the drive, but that's not your problem.  The drive is being recognized, so you've got a malfunction with either the drive itself, or the external case (probably the case's power supply).  \n\nDrives are "recognized" by Windows if their IDE cable isn't plugged in properly, or they don't have SOME power coming into them.  So, you have another problem.
341504
DJ Rick is right.  Remove the hard drive and either set the drive as a primary slave in another computer, or get a external hard drive kit for notebook hard drives (about $30) and install the drive into it.  It converts the harddrive into an external hard drive.  You connect it to a computer via USB and plug in the a/c power cord to supply power to the drive and that's all here is to it.  Should take you under 5 minutes to assemble the hard drive into an external hard drive kit.  CompUSA carries the kits.  Good luck.
500411
You have to back them up in a secondary storage device like a USB drive or a CD. If you have multiple drives in your PC (say a C and a D drive),you can move the files from C to D and format the C drive if you want. If you run short of space,then distribute them across the drives you have. Still if you run out of space,there is no other way but to take a CD/USB backup.\n\nTo recover the lost files,try if they are hidden under Folder options. If you attempted a format on the drive and it went blank because of it,then there's no way i know that you can recover it.
452065
Right click on my computer --> click on manage and then go to disk management.\n\nFrom there tell me what you see with regards to the external USB 2 attached hard drive, does it show up in there, if so what does it say regarding the hard drive , does it have a filing system or anything or what ?\n\nIt may just be a case of having to assign a drive letter to it.\n\nThanks
8659
Please be specific on the question.  Do you want to format your system and start fresh?  If you format the system, you will lose all the existing data (pics, video, songs, etc.).  Before formatting the system, you will need to back up all your data using CDs, DVDs, or an external hard drive.
598052
You are probably using IDE...Piece of cake!\n\nPurchase a new HD (if not already), shut off the computer and unplug power. Remove static electricity and open up the case. Pull out the existing hard drive and set it to either Master of Cable Select (your computer should support CS). Now set the new HD to Slave or Cable Select if the Master drive is on CS, and hook it up to the open IDE plug on the same cable that is attached to your primary HD. Install the drive and plug in the power connector. NOTE: if you buy a hard drive larger than 137 gigs you will need to run specific software to enable large disk support...but 80 gigs is easy.\nNow turn your computer on and format the drive either in Disk Management or through My Computer!! Piece of cake!
283741
Try using the FORMAT command. The Syntax may vary depending on your version of Windows.\n\nIt should be: FORMAT X: /FS:FAT\n\nWhere X: is the drive letter assigned to your card.
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First, it's ntfs. (Which stands for new technology file system. ;) \n\nTo do so, you'd need a copy of Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Buy the upgrade package, and install it. Once installed, convert your hard drive to NTFS. \n\nYou can usually do that with the management window in XP or 2K.\n\nDo some google searching, and you'll find some walk-thrus.
29978
If it's what I'm thinking, you can't see the drive in Disk Management.  Read this post on my technology blog and follow the DiskPart instructions.\n\nhttp://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/2005/11/adding-external-hard-drive-hard-way.html
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I have an external hard drive, and I don't like it much.  It would have been a lot easier and inexpensive to just put an extra internal hard drive in my PC.  With an extra internal drive you can transfer all your mp3s, videos, photos to the extra drive.  When you open My Computer, you'll see both hard drives.  If you have an external hard drive you would see that, too (as long as it was plugged in and powered on).  It would be drive E or F or J or whatever letter came next in the alphabet after all the other drives you own.  You can use an external drive the same way, except you have to pay extra because it has its own housing and power supply.  An external drive will show up under my computer.  You just access it like you would any other drive in Windows.  You can put folders in it, transfer things to and from it, and so on and so forth.
17350
are you trying to format a drive or just erase it? you can use gdisk to erase all data from your disk. i am in IT and i use GDISK all the time to wipe HDs.
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You can purchase a large hard drive (e.g. 200 GB or bigger) and attach it to an USB 2.0 external case.  You then can use the drive as external drive to store all your important files.  You can use Norton Ghost (2003 version is great!: it's fastest because it works through DOS) to clone your hard drive to CD-Rs or DVDs, thus creating "recovery" CDs in case your boot drive dies.
72441
It wont format your harddrive. It will bring up an activation screen.It wount let you register it if that number is invalid,looking you out of windows.
380133
I don't know how big your HD is, but this is how I do it.\n\nFirst... I save everything I want to keep EXTERNALLY.\n\nThen I re-partition the hard drive, using one partition for the OS (C:), one partition for the Applications, one partition for Data. (NOTE: Use "save as" rather than "save" to put data in folders on data partition.)\n\nThen I reload the OS and everything else I need, in the appropriate partitions. (Use "custom" load to change the prtition where you load Appplications)\n\nThen I make "backups" regularly, stored EXTERNALLY.  That way I can simply reload the OS when needed, and then use the "backup" program to "restore from backup", overwriting the OS or other applications and/or files as needed, (like after a crash!!)\n\nOn systems that permit it, a "Recovery" or "Restore" disc set, or restore point, should be made IMMEDIATELY after loading is complete, so you can have a "base" point to start from.  \nI also make a "manual" restore point before loading any new application or making any critical system changes, just in case of problems.
495893
Start by looking in your Documents, Movies, Pictures, and Desktop folders for old, large files that you know you don't need any more. You can through those out but you might want back them up first. \n\nAdding RAM won't help with your hard drive, but a second hard drive would probably be a good idea. Just make sure it's a Firewire drive and it should show up when you plug it in. You can format it HFS+ if it isn't already by using Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities) and then move files to it. That should free up plenty of space. \n\nDepending on your needs, it may be time to consider getting a Macbook. They're lots more powerful, and they've got larger hard drives. The smallest one is now 60GB.
273134
Yes, your computer will read it just like another hard drive but it will be a bit slower if external. Also in an enclosure it will be more suceptible to damage. Safer to keep it in the computer case itself as a second drive if possible.
366357
If you want to use an external drive in case you internal drive fails just cloning one drive to another isn't an option because if you'll try to load from external drive an error related with disk controllers' discrepancy will appear. So I'd strongly recommend you to use the backup software for this purpose. You'll be able to backup your system on an external drive and easily restore it using Acronis True Image. \nYou can download the latest version of ATI here: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/\nOr download free version from here: \nhttp://www.acronis.com/mag/vnu-ati7