format

[reddevil157]

Hey ppl, I'm trying to assign a drive letter to an old laptop hdd. Have it showing, but no letter. When I go to right click on it, the option to change drive letter can not be chosen. I'm deffo in the right place to try change it, I only get the option for, help or delete volume I think it says. All I really want to do is format it to ext3 for use in my dm800hd. I'm connected with a sata / ide to usb adapter. Any help appreciated.
Red.

[barrowmanandrew]

are you sure your in the correct place..

1. press windows start.

2. right click computer.

3. select manage.

4. select disk management.

5. right click on the drive letter you want to change.

6. select change in the pop up box.

is this what you have done?

[reddevil157]

hey bud, yeah, that's where I was and exactly what I tried to do, I can see the list of option's but I can't select it. I've had it in my dreambox before and tried to format it, but don't think it worked and was advised to format to ext3 and I can't work with it till it has a drive letter...can I ?

I forgot bud, you know what I'm like with computers

[barrowmanandrew]

can you not just go into computer.

left click so its highlighted then right click and choose format?

[reddevil157]

It doesn't show up in my comp, but I can see it in devices, and can't format it unfortunately.

[barrowmanandrew]

does it show up as unallocated in disk management?

[reddevil157]

does it show up as unallocated in disk management?

Yep, it does. In devices it tells me it's a toshiba and it's working properly. Spose I could probably do something in there, but you know and pc's, I might as well be looking up a bears ar*e

[barrowmanandrew]

when your in the disk management, you need to right click on the bit where it says unallocated or the black out bit , cant remember.
you can format from there.

cant remember exactly how to do it, i had an external drive like that.

i think you select partition wizard or summit, buts its obvious when you see it

[barrowmanandrew]

you right click on the blacked out bit, found a vid on you tube

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luuKu0RazSE]YouTube - 1min Tech: Formatting a new Hard Drive on Windows 7[/ame]

watch what he does 20 seconds in

[reddevil157]

still no joy, that's exactly the same way I went into it. I'll mess about with it for another bit .

[barrowmanandrew]

best of luck to you...

im sure someone who knows what their talking about will help you in the mornin...

cu ltr m8

[reddevil157]

Thank's bud, no worries.

[Canker_Canison]

Download Gparted (ISO)

Burn it to CD

Boot from the CD (Live CD) & format the drive to Ext3.