Killdisk rendered external hard drive useless

3

I used Killdisk to wipe a hard drive intending to clean it before selling.

I now cannot use the hard drive. Device Manager in Windows reports the "device is working properly"

It is connected using USB.

I have tried:

  • Using Disk Management in Windows, can't operate on drive
  • Using GPartEd, cannot see drive
  • Various other software with same result
  • Using two other computers
  • Using both the USB and eSATA connections

The drive (or maybe the record represents the bridge, not the drive itself) does show up under Windows in "My Computer" as a "Removable Disk".

  • Opening it results in "Please insert a disk into Removable Disk (G:)."
  • Attempting to format results in "There is no disk in drive G:. Insert a disk, and then try again."

Any ideas?

James

Posted 2011-05-19T01:20:27.143

Reputation: 31

Does it happen to have a security lock code on it? (There's a "secure erase" command or something in the ATA standard... it might have used that option, although I'm not sure it has.) – user541686 – 2011-05-19T01:25:28.217

Mehrdad, it is a standard hard drive in a standard enclosure. No security locks. – James – 2011-05-19T05:04:24.563

1@James: Sorry, I meant a software lock, nothing to do with the enclosure. – user541686 – 2011-05-19T05:07:33.487

Oh, sorry, no, nothing of the kind. The drive "contents" are 100% unallocated space. – James – 2011-05-19T05:09:36.387

@James Huh interesting, okay. – user541686 – 2011-05-19T05:13:11.827

So, attempting to Initialize the disk in Disk Management fails? this sounds like a common uninitialized disk problem to me. – jcrawfordor – 2011-05-19T05:19:10.473

@jcrawfordor: Yes. My google searches have revolved around "disk initialize" to no avail. – James – 2011-05-19T05:29:49.297

This is very unusual to me, but perhaps there is trouble with the disk controller in the external enclosure? maybe putting it in to your computer directly would allow you to initialize it. I think maybe the disk controller is trying to interpret the partition table for some reason. – jcrawfordor – 2011-05-19T05:34:51.630

@jcrawfordor: You may be onto something there. Unfortunately I don't have anything for the screws on the enclosure so will have to report back later. – James – 2011-05-19T05:50:12.973

@jcrawfordor: Scissors! Was able to create a partition tableusing GPartEd with the drive connected directly to the computer. Thanks, feel free to make an "answer" if you want the points or whatever from this site awarded to you :) – James – 2011-05-19T06:22:20.953

Answers

1

Try using a newer computer to set up your partitions on it -- some older BIOSes seem to prevent this from working.

Randolf Richardson

Posted 2011-05-19T01:20:27.143

Reputation: 14 002

Randolf, what does the BIOS have to do with it? The hard drive is recognised on both computers, and they are both under 4 years old. – James – 2011-05-19T05:03:58.200

@James: I'm not sure exactly what the BIOS has to do with it, but I suspect the BIOS because upgrading it in at least one instance resolved the problem for me for initializing and partitioning external USB mass storage devices. – Randolf Richardson – 2011-05-20T17:01:45.323

Asked: 2011-05-19T01:20:27.143

Viewed: 924 times

Active: 2016-05-18T22:33:48.897