"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
    2011-10-01T12:20:46+00:00

    I have the similar kind of Problem. It works fine on Dell Vastro 32 bit windows 7 professional but i get the problem mentioned above when i plug MY External HDD into Dell Latitude E6320 64 bit windows & professional. Following the steps mentioned above I get nothing just the size of my HDD but the HDD is actually in NTFS. To add to all these irritation, format does not even work. But I can still everything on any other OS other than win 7 64 bit.Thanks for the assistance.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-09-28T10:59:40+00:00

    Ouch, this just happened to me. This problem can happen with any USB system device that changes its USB port. I've also had it happen with a mouse!

    You don't need to reformat your USB drive.

    The best way to fix it is to 'Safely remove and eject' the drive (click on the USB device icon in the taskbar drop-down)

    Go to the Device Manager in the Control Panel (or you can find it via Administrative Tools then Computer Management).

    Find the 'Universal Serial Bus controllers' entry, right click on it, and select 'Scan for hardware changes'. This will scan all the USB ports and refresh their status.

    When that has finished, reconnect your disk to the USB port to want it to run on. The system should then reload the device drivers and assign it to that USB port.

    Note: It may not be necessary to remove and eject the disk before scanning for hardware changes, but it seems like a sensible precaution.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-09-21T05:24:45+00:00

    I had this same problem and tried all the solutions given here but it dint worked. But i found out the solution to it.

    CheckDisk : chkdsk e: f/

    The correct syntax is

    chkdsk E: /f

    assuming that your drive is E: - change this to the drive letter that is valid for you

    To run this command you should open the Run command in the Start menu.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-09-21T04:57:09+00:00

    I had this same problem and tried all the solutions given here but it dint worked. But i found out the solution to it.

    CheckDisk : chkdsk e: f/

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