Formatting My Book.

[g4m3rof1337]

I am trying to format my Western Digital external hard drive.

I tried right clicking, and choosing Format, but it says make sure nothing is using this device. Nothing obvious was using it, so I looked for something in the Processes window.


Any suggestions?



Thanks.

 

[PC eye]

When in doubt toss it out! Or you can go right to the manufacturer's own support site and waa laaa.... "how to install WD My Book>how to partition and format external drives! http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...nNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1

 

[Geoff]

So does it give you an error? I would disconnect it, fully power down your computer and power it back up. Once you are in Windows (or Mac), connect it, make sure it doesn't load any files such as media, and then try formating it again.

 

[PC eye]

First there has to be a partition on the drive in order to be able to format it. A bare drive doesn't already have media files on it. The link there gives you step by step installation instructions which go easily if you didn't end up with a bad drive in the rare chance there.

 

[g4m3rof1337]

Alright.
I right clicked My Computer, clicked Manage, and then clicked Disk Management, and am currently formatting it.

Looks like its doing good.




Thanks.

 

[PC eye]

WD always provides good instructions for installing their product to no doubt. Save the page in your favorites in case you run into this again or want to bail someone out of a similar jam with a WD model.