"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

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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
    2012-04-20T23:40:49+00:00

    Last Time I had this problem, I Boot My Computer on the Ubuntu Live CD and then I copy all my files on my computer

    and then I Format the USB/External HD in NTFS

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-04-20T23:36:58+00:00

    I have the same problem, and yes its only located on my computer

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-04-19T11:20:22+00:00

    hey i got some extermely valuable voice recordings and musical recordings on my external hard drive i need to do a windows "scan and fix (recommended)" like last time and it would work but this time if i try error checking it says windows can't access the disk.  

    in disk management it says:

    G: 500GB RAW Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)

    when i input this: chkdsk /f G: (the type of the file system is NTFS. Unable to determine volume version and state. CHKDSK aborted.)

    taking off autoplay doesn't work. i haven't got money to buy easeus or handy recovery.

    changing usb ports doesn't work by scan for hardware changes...

    my tails usb from Tor has linux on it and i tried opening the hdd on it but my computer couldn't open my computer so that didn't work.

    PLEASE HELP US!!!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-03-24T14:22:57+00:00

    Hi, i tried now what you said like 3 years ago lol

    I put my mouse over the HDD and it said primary partition, and healthy

    Hope you can save my files

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