I TB portableUSB 3 Hard Disk can't be formatted

[sumasesh]

I TB portableUSB 3 Hard Disk can't be formatted after it crashed. The platter spins, the light comes on and the question regarding formatting comes up on the screen. But the reformatting utilities don't work. What is the solution?

[Lovekraft]

Hi sumasesh,

Can you provide some more details about your computer and setup? What version of Windows do you have, what architecture (32- or 64-bit), and what's your model of PC?

USB 3.0 is a relatively new specification, and it's possible that your computer isn't equipped to read a USB 3.0 drive properly, especially if it's a faulty drive. If it's in an enclosure, some enclosures are not capable of handling drives in upwards of 750GB (hence the problematic TB situation).

There are third-party programs that may be of help, although I can't personally verify their usage with this type of drive (or without knowing your computer's details). Examples are EASEUS Partition Master, GParted/Parted Magic (a bootable Linux distro specifically for disk and partition management), Paragon Partition Manager, and Acronis Disk Director (the first two are free, the last two are demo/pay software).

A more detailed list and comparison is at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disk_partitioning_software

Other than that, I'd say you might have a broken drive on your hands.