Question Successfully cloned HDD to SDD, now unable to format HDD

[celticgamer86]

I have successfully cloned the OS from my HDD to new SDD using the Samsung software. Disconnected the HDD, booted up with just the SSD and everything works great. Now I want to format my HDD and use it for secondary storage.

The device manager and bios both recognize the old HDD, but it's not displayed under file explorer. Going into Computer Management/Disc Management, I can see the HDD but it has the message "disk is offline because it has a signature collision". I also have no options when right clicking any of the sections.

How do I go about formatting this HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

Signature collision sometimes happens with the Samsung tool. The clone is too exact.

A USB dock, and the commandline diskpart /clean tool would get around this.

 

[celticgamer86]

Any instructions on how to do this step by step? And what kind of USB dock do I need, and for what purpose?

 

[USAFRet]

Any instructions on how to do this step by step? And what kind of USB dock do I need, and for what purpose?

A USB dock would be used to power up the old HDD AFTER the system is up and running on the SSD. No signature collision possible.

Then via the commandline:

How to Diskpart Erase/Clean a Drive Through the Command Prompt | Support Seagate US

This article explains the Microsoft Diskpart Erase utility. The command that erases the drive during this process is "Clean". In this article "Clean" and erase are used interchangeably. Cleaning or erasing a storage device removes all data and partitions from the drive.

www.seagate.com

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-format-storage-drive-using-diskpart-windows-10