"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
    2010-01-02T00:51:48+00:00

    Yes.  My external drive is in fat32 and my system is in ntfs.  How can I access my files on my  external hard drive?

    Michelle

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-01-10T07:50:42+00:00

    I am facing the same problem. I've done the above check and my situation is of the same as Michelle Smith. However, it states that there is 100% free space but i am certain that there were 10 over GB of data in there the last time. How should i go about?

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-01-10T20:29:53+00:00

    My drive turned out to show some I/O errors.  Anyhow, I used an older copy of Easeus  software to recover all my files.  http://www.easeus.com/  Worked great for me.  Good luck on getting your files back.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-03-03T10:14:15+00:00

    I have same problem,i have about 3 years of my life on my memorystick,i dont want to format

    disk management says:(H:) 7,53 GB RAW Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)

    All my drives are formated in NTFS,i allways format them in NTFS.

    I tried the memorystick in 2 coputers,but both have win 7 and same problem in them.

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