Initialise & Format [GPT] WD External HDD

I had a problem with my 3 TB WD External Hard Drive becoming RAW as per my Thread here . . .

> 3 TB WD External Hard Drive NOT Working [ RAW ]

I will, over the next few days, have extracted ALL the data I need from it via a Docking Station, and I would like to Format it as GPT and use it as an internal drive.

Would the following be the BEST way to achieve this please ? . . .

Code:

diskpart
list disk
select disk <n> <- The Disk Number of the WD External HDD
clean
convert GPT
create part primary
select part 1
format quick fs=NTFS
exit
exit

. . . or would using Disk Management or MiniTool Partition Wizard [ Portable ] be the way to go ?

I would prefer using Diskpart !

Thanks.

I had a 1TB WDC external USB drive fail and it actually was the case it was in that failed, the drive is inside a computer and I just used Disk Management to delete the partition/s on it then created a new single partition and formatted as NTFS, worked fine. But there may be small partitions that DM can't delete so for truly clean I use a drive dock on my Linux computer with GPARTED installed to do that. I didn't pay any attention as to GPT or MBR, just let DM do its job. I like using the KISS principle whenever possible, helps to avoid issues.

One thing about external or portable drives is the interface in them will interpret between the OS that is accessing them and when that interface fails the data may not be recoverable, not recognizable. Mac OS X and maybe the newer macOS can read NTFS but need added software to write to it.

Hello @Berton, thanks for the reply and information.

Berton said:

I had a 1TB WDC external USB drive fail and it actually was the case it was in that failed, the drive is inside a computer and I just used Disk Management to delete the partition/s on it then created a new single partition and formatted as NTFS, worked fine. But there may be small partitions that DM can't delete so for truly clean I use a drive dock on my Linux computer with GPARTED installed to do that. I didn't pay any attention as to GPT or MBR, just let DM do its job. I like using the KISS principle whenever possible, helps to avoid issues.

Hence why I particularly want to use Diskpart.

Hello @hsehestedt, thanks for the reply and information.

hsehestedt said:

Paul, your diskpart commands are spot on. However, I can save you one line . You can omit the line the "select part 1" because after you create a partition, that partition automatically becomes the selected partition. Nothing at all wrong with having that line, simply thought I'd point out that it is not needed.

Thanks for the confirmation and additional information.

hsehestedt said:

One additional note: I have noticed recently that there seems to be some sort of bug with diskpart where are issuing a clean command it may return an error. If that happens, simply run the clean command again. After seeing this error a minimum of 200 times now, it seems to only happen if the drive was originally GPT, never with MBR.

I am NOT at my Desktop [ Docking Station ] at the moment, but if I remember correctly, the HDD is already GPT, so that information will be VERY useful if I come across that issue.

hsehestedt said:

EDIT: Just noticed one other thing. You are not assigning a drive letter. After the format command, add an "assign" to assign the first available drive letter or an "assign letter=x" to assign a specific letter.

Thanks for the above.

At present, I have TWO additional [ Non-OS ] small internal HDD's [ Drive D: (Data) and Drive I: (Image) ] which I intend to do away with after copying the data elsewhere.

I intend to use Diskpart while the WD External HDD is in the Docking Station, and then Assign it a letter once I have removed it from the Docking Station and connected it internally, just in case things do NOT go according to plan.

Hello @hsehestedt,

hsehestedt said:

If you are putting this in code, here is a trick that I use to make sure everything works:

I do the "clean", then I do a "convert gpt", followed by another "clean" and another "convert gpt". This works because after converting to gpt the first time, it now will definitely not fail when I do the clean the second time since it is now GPT. I have a program that I do a lot of disk configuration in and this has never ever failed me.

Here is a sample:

Code:

(echo select disk %DiskID%
echo clean
echo convert gpt
echo clean
echo convert gpt
echo exit
) | diskpart > nul

Thanks again.

As this is pretty much a one time process, I will NOT be bothering to write a Script for this. I do actually have a couple of Scripts that uses the brackets for Diskpart for other tasks. Interesting information though.

@Paul Black.

My take on wiping your 3TB WD external now out of its enclosure and on a dock.:

Use HDD low level formatting Tool : Download Windows Executable (works without installation): HDD Low Level Format Tool ver.4.40

Website: HDDGURU: HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool

It will be a single "HDDLLF.4.40.exe" file. Run it (> Continue for free) with your 3TB WD plugged in.









I always use this tool to wipe my HDDs clean before any trial..

Hello @jumanji,

jumanji said:

Use HDD low level formatting Tool :

Download Windows Executable (works without installation) : HDD Low Level Format Tool ver.4.40

Thanks for the additonal input and information.

Whichever method you adopt to initialise the disk as GPT and format it, when done "On an elevated command prompt run fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive letter> Post the screenshot. I am interested in seeing it. ( I learn from user experiences )