Unable to Format WesternDigital USB Hard Disk

If the operating system can't format the hard drive then the chances are that the drive is either failing or Failed.

We're going to need more information to troubleshoot, but if it's a new drive that's never been set up follow the instructions below. If these instructions aren't helpful, then please post back with more info and I'll help you further.

Your external hard drive likely has no partitions so Windows has no drive to mount. Follow these steps to create and format a partition for your external hard drive.

1. Press Win+R to open the Run command.
2. Type "Control" into the dialog box.
3. Double-click "Administrative Tools."
4. Double-click "Computer Management."
5. Select "Disk Management" under Storage.
6. Find the 250 GB External Hard drive in the right pane.
7. Right click on the drive and select "Create new partition".
8. After the partition is created you will need to format the partition.
9. Format the partition as NTFS unless you plan on booting off the hard drive, in which case format the partition as FAT32. You can also create multiple partitions if you want.
10. Enter My Computer and you will now see your external hard drive.

Good luck and thanks for using FixYa.

Your external hard drive likely has no partitions so Windows has no drive to mount. Follow these steps to create and format a partition for your external hard drive.

1. Press Win+R to open the Run command.
2. Type "Control" into the dialog box.
3. Double-click Administrative Tools.
4. Double-click Computer Management.
5. Select Disk Management under Storage.
6. Find the 250 GB External Hard drive in the right pane.
7. Right click on the drive and select "Create new partition".
8. After the partition is created you will need to format the partition.
9. Format the partition as NTFS unless you plan on booting off the hard drive, in which case format the partition as FAT32. You can also create multiple partitions if you want.
10. Enter My Computer and you will now see your external hdd.

Good luck and thanks for using FixYa.

Your external hard drive likely has no partitions so Windows has no drive to mount. Follow these steps to create and format a partition for your external hard drive.

1. Press Win+R to open the Run command.
2. Type "Control" into the dialog box.
3. Double-click Administrative Tools.
4. Double-click Computer Management.
5. Select Disk Management under Storage.
6. Find the 250 GB External Hard drive in the right pane.
7. Right click on the drive and select "Create new partition".
8. After the partition is created you will need to format the partition.
9. Format the partition as NTFS unless you plan on booting off the hard drive, in which case format the partition as FAT32. You can also create multiple partitions if you want.
10. Enter My Computer and you will now see your external hdd.

Good luck and thanks for using FixYa.

Windows 7 will format an external partition to FAT32, as long as it's 32GB or less. "Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Options". Right click on "Computer Management", select "Run as an Administrator", double-click on "Storage" then "Disk Management", the right click on your external drive. Select "Shrink Volume", shrink it by 32GB or less, then right click on unallocated space, select format, and "FAT32" will show up as an option during the format wizard.

This is a way to create a small bit of space on an external hard drive for copying some files from Mac OS's to Windows.

Right Click on your new drive in the Computer


Choose a File System (NTFS is ideal most cases) and give the new volume a name if you choose. You might like to call it something like "Portable Drive," or "Removeable Drive." If not, just take the defaults and click "OK."


You will get one last warning that you are about to format your drive and erase all data. Click OK to proceed. When you see the process has reached 100%, you are done and you're new external hard drive is ready to use!

sorry for ur loss
just for your information once u delete the partition the hard disk goes in a raw data format to create a new partition
the old data cannot be recovered in this format
u might as well create a new one

You may have the hard drive partitioned into two or more partitions.
Delete all the partitions and create a single partition and then format this single partition on the hard drive.

You are probably using FAT32 for your partition on your drive: the limit for FAT32 is 32GB. Alternatively, you are using NTFS but your partition has been limited to that particular size.

You could you a Disk partition manager to change the format of your partition to NTFS or if you are already using this format extend the partion size to your requirements.

A safer alternative, if your current partition is set smaller than your drive size is to create additional primary or secondary partitions to fully utilize the available capacity: you could use (with great caution and only if you are experience) standard Windows Control Panel -> Systems and Security -> Admistrative Tools -> Computer management -> Disk management

that's easy: 1.
my computer-right click format then when if formated -right click again then format and select FAT32 
2. to have one partition download a program (partition magic or acronis in the trial mode and resize the partitions to be just one).