cancelled format of hard drive in mid format. win8 and dos no longer see it. salvagable?

[androb78]

i cancelled format of external hard drive in mid format. windows8 and dos no longer see it. is it salvageable? was trying to take it from ntfs to fat32.

 

[mbreslin1954]

When you say "windows8 and dos no longer see it", are you trying to look at it directly from the operating system, or using a tool like DiskManager in Windows 8? If the partitioning or formatting is screwed up, you won't be able to see it in Windows Explorer in Windows 8, you will have to run DiskManager and fix whatever problems it has there first, such as creating a valid partition, etc.

 

[photonboy]

YES.

As per above:

1. Attach USB drive.

2. Open "Disk Management" (comes up as "partition and format hard drives" I believe if searching W8)

3. Look for drive (may show space as "unallocated")

4. If unallocated the right-click space and add volume.

5. Then format unless it does it automatically (I forget).

6. If you have to tell it to format then do a "Quick NTFS Format" (not full) first just to be sure it works. Either way I suggest a FULL NTFS format since that builds up a bad sector table.

As for FAT32?

Um... why?
If it's for using with another PC I thought Linux and OSX could read NTFS drives.

 

[SBMfromLA]

you could try going to Disk Management and seeing if it's there. If so, just delete any partition that's shown and create a new one. I've had problems like this happen all the time... Disk Management shows all drive... even the hidden or unlettered ones.