I have an old 1TB Toshiba hard drive that I used for storage on my second PC, but that PC experienced frequent blue screens and ultimately wouldn't boot Windows. I attempted to use a Windows 11 boot USB to reset the hard drive and install a new operating system, but the drive didn't show up at first. After some reboots, it appeared as disk 0, displaying 0MB. I tried using CMD with various tips to fix the issue, but nothing worked. Now, I've connected the hard drive to my main PC via SATA, but I'm still facing the same problem—it's unallocated and unidentified, still showing 0MB. I've tried EaseUS and some other applications to recover it, but no luck. I'm not worried about the files on the HD since I have backups; I just want to erase it and prepare it for future use. Any suggestions?
4 Answers
You might want to consider that the hard drive could be damaged. If it's not responding to any partitioning tools, it might be toast. Also, I recommend avoiding installing Windows 11 on an HDD under any circumstances; they just don’t perform well enough these days. They're better suited for large file storage than running an OS.
If you're still having BSOD issues from your second PC, you should check for dump files in C:WindowsMinidump if you manage to boot into Windows. Those files can help diagnose the problem. If you find any, zip them up and upload them to a file-sharing service so that someone can help you analyze them. The folder's contents will give you insight into what's going wrong, especially if you're also dealing with issues related to the hard drive.
Make sure to back up your data before attempting any major changes! Just a heads up, but messing around with your BIOS settings can lead to data loss if you're not careful. Always have a backup ready!
Have you tried using Windows Disk Manager? You can access it by right-clicking the Start button and selecting 'Disk Management.' Once you're in, locate your hard drive, right-click on it, and see if you can allocate the space or create a new partition. It might be completely unallocated, which is why it’s showing 0MB.
I’m having trouble doing that. The disk doesn’t even boot in MBR or GPT. Can you walk me through the steps?