How do i get my HDD to format when i cannot assign it a drive letter

[Franklin17]

Hello,
I have a LG HDD and it was working fine all the time but than i tried to connect it to my DVD and after that when i plug it in my laptop it says that it is ready for use but it does not show in My Computer, than i right click on my computer, Manage, Disk Management, and when i look for the drive it says that it needs to be 'Initialized' when i try and initialize it it gives me a choise of 'Initialize with MGR or CDR', when i choose either one it comes up with an error....'Cyclic Redundancy Error'

I cannot format it because i cannot assign it a drive letter.

Please help
Thank you

 

[Hawkeye22]

MGR? CDR? I'm not familiar with these. Normally your options are MBR or GPT. A CRC or cyclic redundancy error is not good. You may need to try some recovery software and see if you can rescue some of the data from that drive.

 

[WyomingKnott]

A few questions to make this less ambiguous.

First, is there data on this disk that you need to recover, or is a solution that will result in a usable but empty disk acceptable?

Do you have a laptop or desktop machine? What model?

How does the LG HDD attach to the computer?

To the best of my knowledge, an HDD (hard drive) cannot be connected to a DVD (optical drive). Can you be more specific about what you did?

 

[Franklin17]

ok.....there is data on the hard drive, but i dont need it, all i want to do is format it so that i will be able to use it again and sorry about the error i made, it is infact MGR and GPT. sorry.

I have a Lenovo Laptop, running Windows 7 Unltimate.

The Hard drive has a single USb cable that connects it to the laptop.

Last night i was trying 'DISKPART' in command prompt, but no luck. I tried everything and every result wants me to 'INITIALIZE' the external, but i cannot get it initialized or assign it a drive letter. In order to assign a drive letter i need to initialize the drive.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I'm not sure if software like speedfan or HDTune will allow you to read SMART values from the drive in this state, but you may want to try and download some software to check the SMART status. If it is indeed reporting errors, I don't think windows will allow you to initialize it. It may be time for a new drive.

 

[Franklin17]

Would i be able to do a 'fixmbr' on that drive if i boot with it? and I bought thr drive about 4 months ago, but if i need to buy a new one than so be it. I will keep that one as a paper wight..... LOL.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I'm not sure if fixmbr will work. Have you tried to check the SMART status of the drive?

 

[Franklin17]

How do i go about checking the SMART status of the drive?

 

[Hawkeye22]

I listed it a few posts up.

 

[Franklin17]

OK cool.... i will have a look at them and if nothing works than i will just have to buy a new drive.

Thanks for all the help

Peace out.