"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
    2011-11-13T19:30:22+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.

    Thanks! This was driving me crazy because it came out of nowhere, and your solution fixed it completely.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-02T23:17:30+00:00

    Hello,

    Due to the age of this issue, it would be best to create a new thread for this.

    Doing so will avoid any confusion between your issue and that of the original poster.

    Best regards,

    Matthew_Ha

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-11-01T16:34:18+00:00

    Nothing appears when I hover over it - it just says Healthy (Pimary Partition) nothing more.  File system is NTFS.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-11-01T15:44:52+00:00

    I too have the problem with two different dirves.  The first one I noticed the problem on was a new drive I'd had pnly a week or two. I stored files on it with a Windows 7 system and then could not access with another XP system.  Fortunately I was able to go back to the first systm, save the files to another device and then format the new problamatic one.

    On another older dive I've had for about two years, I had used exclusively on an XP machine and stored about 900 GB.  Never had a problem.  The a couple of days ago, I tried to access the data with a new Widows 7 system and was told I had to reformat.  I tried it on another XP system and another Windows 7 system and both had the same problem (Windows 7 sys to format, XP simply will not access). I tried checking the disk on the original XP system (took over 12 hours) but nothing wrond was found.  Fortunately I can still access with original XP system and am copying files to that disk I reformated (which all systems can see now); but this is taking excruciatingly long - 15 hours for the first 700GB.

    Both drives were ones that require plugging in (the older one is 1 TB, the new one is 2 TB); I've not had this problem with flash dirves (128 MB to 8 GB) or portable drives (120 GB to 1.5 TB).

    I would really like to find a better solution.  For now, though, I am alwys going to format any new drives I get before using them.

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