Can't Initialize, Format, or Give Drive Letter to HDD

[peteregg]

Issues with my HDD.

Went back from Windows 10 technical to 8.1 today on my SSD.

Now, Windows 8.1 won't recognize my 1TB internal HDD under This PC. It registers in BIOS and Disk Manager.

When right-clicking on the drive in Disk Manager, my options are greyed out except for 'Help' and 'Convert to Dynamic Drive.' Can't Format or give a drive letter.

Also, I had to disconnect the HDD in order for my Windows 8.1 boot USB to recognize the SSD. I may have extended the two partitions of the HDD into one. What was that small partition of the HDD that I extended?

At this point, I just want it to read and don't care about the data.

Anybody know a workaround? Please see screenshot below:

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[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, peteregg!

You can try to convert the drive back to basic, still keep in mind that this will erase the data on that drive. Once you do this, the option to format the drive shouldn't be grayed out. Here's a tutorial you can use: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html

Another possible way to format the hard drive is using diskpart in Command prompt. Just make sure you run CMD as administrator and enter these commands:
diskpart
select disk 1
list partitions (make sure you select the right disk!)
clean

Hope this helps. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD