Windows – External hard drive won’t format due to “read-only” files

external hard drivefile formatread-onlywindows 7

I have an external hard drive that has all of my media and files on it. It normally boots right up, but for some reason it's been having trouble.

I normally use it on 2 computers, one with windows vista and the other with windows 7 (that is in much better condition).

When I plug it into the USB drive it now states that I "need to format disc drive F before I can use it"

I try to format the drive and it almost finishes until it taps out and says that it can't open the drive. It asks if it's plugged in correctly (which it is) or is a read-only file, and suggests that I look for how to change read-only files.

How can I go about fixing this without wiping everything clean? I'm completely fine with deleting the "read-only" file that's screwing everything up, I just don't want to lose the other 10 years of my life.

any help would be immensely appreciated!!

Best Answer

I'd try using diskpart.

Run these commands in an elevated (Administrator) command prompt, hitting enter at the line breaks:

diskpart

list disk

select disk n (n being your drive to format; make sure it's the correct capacity to ensure you've identified the right one)

attributes disk clear readonly

clean

create partition primary

format fs=ntfs

exit

Should get you going. Next thing to try would be GParted LiveCD; throw it in your machine, boot to it with the USB drive connected, and format that sucker. I've never had that not work.

Related Question