"You need to format the disk in drive J: before you can use it"

Anonymous
2009-11-27T14:36:21+00:00

The error message says "You need to format the disk in drive J: before you can use it" I have a removable USB storage drive that i always plugged in to my computer everytime I download movies save disk space on my computer.  Now it want me to format this storage disk.  Also,where it used to label this disk as "Removable Disk", it is not labeled as Local Disk J:. I don't want to format this disk because it will erase all my files and folders on this removable USB storage disk.  Please help me.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2011-01-12T20:05:12+00:00

I had same problem.

And I have an solution for you... The problem is that when you plug in your HD first time, Windows 7 install your HD and associate it to only this USB port (let it be USB port "4") than if you wanna to use it (HD) again, you need to plug it, in the same USB port (USB port "4") where it was installed first time. It is Stupid!!!! But that's how it worked with my HD.

Just try all USB ports that you have on your PC.

Good luck.

Hope it was helpful. :D

PS: the same problem is with all divices you plug in to your pc.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-01-23T18:15:01+00:00

    Legend

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-01-23T06:47:46+00:00

    I had the same problem!

    I have recovered all files by handy recovery 3.0 and formatted it to ntfs. Everything is working perfect now! 

    good luck!

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-01-18T01:24:36+00:00

    Hi,

    After a lot of research on this issue I have determined that you are providing users with incorrect resolutions to the problem. Could you please provide the correct solution to them. To stop the issue from ocurring all a user needs to do is go to START-CONTROL PANEL-AUTOPLAY and then uncheck the box at the top that says...Use Auto Play For All Media And Devices. This has worked on over 200 computers that I have worked on. I can immediatly recreat the issue by re-checking the box. A restart is not required. All of the users files and folders are still on the drive and there is no corruption on the drive. On over 50% of the machines that I have repaired aftermarket media such as DVD software and others have added themselves to the autoplay section. On some machines nothing has been added.This fix will keep others from formatting their hard drives and losing data. Please let Microsoft engineers know of this issue so they can provide a future patch to correct.

    Thanks,

    Chuck Willoughby

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-01-16T09:09:53+00:00

    You are amazing.

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