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26 May 2024  Ashley S. Miller  Specialist of Customer Service Dept.
 

Summary
Cant format hard drive? Utilize proven methods for successful hard drive formatting and swift resolution of related issues.



Table of contents

table iconI. What are the reasons why the hard disk cannot be formatted?
table iconII. How to solve the problem that the hard disk cannot be formatted?
table iconIII. How to use Renee Undeleter to restore lost data in the hard disk?
cant format hard drive

I. What are the reasons why the hard disk cannot be formatted?

Formatting did not complete successfully
Windows could not complete the format
Generally speaking, the failure to format the hard disk may be caused by the following factors:
● Virus infection and malware attack.
● Bad sectors appear on the hard disk.
● The driver is not updated in time.
● The disk is write-protected.
There are many reasons why the hard disk cannot be formatted, and you may not be able to accurately determine the reason for a while. You can try the following methods one by one to solve it.

II. How to solve the problem that the hard disk cannot be formatted?

1. Delete the read-only write protection of the disk

unable format, disk is write protected
When the disk is write-protected, the operation of formatting the disk will fail. You can clear the read-only attribute of the disk to solve the problem. The specific operations are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the hard disk that cannot be formatted to the computer, directly search (cmd) in the search box in the lower left corner, and select (run as administrator) to open the command prompt tool.
run as administrator
Step 2: In the opened command prompt window, enter the following commands in sequence:

dispart 

and press the (Enter) key to start executing the command;

list disk

 and press the (Enter) key to list all disks;

select disk 2

 (2 is the target disk, please judge according to the capacity) and press the (Enter) key;

attributes disk clear readonly

 and press the (Enter) key.
After waiting for the read-only attribute of the disk to be cleared, you can try to format the target hard disk again. If the problem is not resolved, then the disk may not be write-protected, see other methods below.
Type the command prompt command

2. Use the error checking tool to repair the damaged disk

If there is a bad sector in the hard disk, the format may fail. You can check and repair it through the disk check function of Windows. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Open “My Computer/This Computer“, right-click the hard disk to be repaired and select (Properties). Switch to the (Tools) option in the Properties window and click the (Check) button.
select properties
check disk from my computer
Step 2: Next, select the (Scan and repair drive) option in the error checking interface, then wait for the scan and repair according to the prompts.
scan drive

3. Update the driver of the hard disk

It is also relatively simple to update the driver of the hard disk. The specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Run the Windows computer, connect the hard disk, press (Windows+R) keys to open the running window, enter (devmgmt.msc), and click (OK) to enter Device Manager.
windows Key + R
run the command devmgmt
Step 2: Next, in the “Disk Drive“, right-click to select the target hard disk, and select the (Update Driver) option.
update driver-disk
Step 3: Select the option to search automatically for updated driver software, follow the instructions to complete the update of the hard disk driver, restart the device, and try formatting the drive again.
update Driver Confirm
Several common methods to solve the problem that the hard disk cannot be formatted. If none of them can be solved, you can also use the diskpart command to format the hard disk. Formatting the hard disk will clear the data in the device. If you format the hard disk due to improper operation, in order to ensure that the data in the hard disk can be retrieved intact, please be sure to stop the device immediately and use professional data recovery software to restore the data in the hard disk. We recommend you to use Renee Undeleter, which supports both Windows and Mac systems, and is easy and effective to operate.

III. How to use Renee Undeleter to restore lost data in the hard disk?

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is a software specifically designed to recover various data files. It can help retrieve lost data when important files are accidentally deleted, the recycle bin is emptied, or the disk/storage is formatted. The software includes four functional modules: file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery, and image creation, making it a convenient solution for all possible data loss problems that may occur during system use.
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Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition scan, whole partition scan and whole disk scan;

Supported file types Image, video, audio, text, email and so on;

Image creation Create a partition image to read and back up data;

Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition/whole partition/whole disk scan;

Supported devices SD card/USB/hard disk.

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2. How to recover hard disk data with Renee Undeleter?

Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Undeleter, select the (Whole Disk Scan) option on the main interface.
Note: Do not install on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
select whole disk scan in renee undeleter
Data recovery function:

  • Fast Partition Scan – Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
  • Whole Partition Scan – Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
  • Whole Disk Scan – Analyze and get partition information and perform a full scan of the entire partition.
  • Image Creation – You can create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.
Step 2: Select the hard disk to be scanned, and click (Next). Select the (default setting) on the advanced setting interface.
select a disk to recover in renee undeleter
select the file types in fast partition scan
Step 3: The software will analyze the hard disk device and prompt you to select the partition you need to scan. You can choose the corresponding partition to save time. After scanning, preview and select the files you want to restore, then click the (Recover) button to complete the process.
select taget files to recover with renee undeleter
undeleter preview docx
Step 4: Next, select the target folder, click (Browse) to select another disk to save the recovered files, and then click the (Recover) button to start the file recovery command, you just need to wait patiently.