Red Down Arrow Icon on hard drive

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Henri020129

PCHF Member
Sep 9, 2019
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Computer Management 9_9_2019 6_35_24 PM.png
As you guys can see, there is a red icon above "Disk 1". It's causing problems. How can I fix this. Please help.
 
I'm unable to format it.

I accidentally clicked on uninstall device in disk management, since then it showed me that red icon. I want to reinstall the device (hard drive) but I'm unable to find a way to do it. The hard drive is fairly new with nothing on it. It worked before...

I can't initialise it because of an "I/O device error". And yes the drive is updated.

But thanks anyway.
 
Can you disconnect the drive & reconnect it?
Try DiskPart to clean the drive.
Open Powershell with admin
Diskpart
List disk
Select disk x (where x is the number of the drive)
Clean
The go to drive management & it should ask you to initialise the drive - do so then format it.
 
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Can you disconnect the drive & reconnect it?
Try DiskPart to clean the drive.
Open Powershell with admin
Diskpart
List disk
Select disk x (where x is the number of the drive)
Clean
The go to drive management & it should ask you to initialise the drive - do so then format it.
Thanks for replying. I did all that and it did successfully clean the drive, but did not fix the problem. This problem surfaced when I uninstalled it.

On the screenshot I did the following(before problem):
Right click on drive
Properties
Drive tab
Uninstall
 
Have you tried:
Press Win + R keys to bring up Run, and type: diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter. ... Find the uninitialized, unknown external hard drive with I/O device error > Right-click on it and select Initialize Disk. 4. Then set the disk to initialize and set the disk as MBR or GPT.
After running the clean cmd you can try to format it:
Type: convert gpt or convert mbr and hit Enter.
Type: create partition primary and hit Enter.
Type: format quick fs=ntfs and hit Enter.
Type: assign and hit Enter.

If the drive is an external one then try another USB port or another cable.
Try also running a disk check on the drive.
 
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Have you tried:
Press Win + R keys to bring up Run, and type: diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter. ... Find the uninitialized, unknown external hard drive with I/O device error > Right-click on it and select Initialize Disk. 4. Then set the disk to initialize and set the disk as MBR or GPT.
After running the clean cmd you can try to format it:
Type: convert gpt or convert mbr and hit Enter.
Type: create partition primary and hit Enter.
Type: format quick fs=ntfs and hit Enter.
Type: assign and hit Enter.

If the drive is an external one then try another USB port or another cable.
Try also running a disk check on the drive.
Thank you for replying. I'm sorry I've forgot to mention that it's a internal hard drive. I followed your steps anyway, but it still doesn't work. Formatting it, is something it doesn't allow me to do. Thx
 
Have you tried removing the drive from the system rebooted and also checked BIOS to make sire that they drive is not still showing there?

Then shut down and connect the drive and see if that corrects the issue.

Try connecting the drive to different SATA ports.
 
Thank you for replying. I'm sorry I've forgot to mention that it's a internal hard drive. I followed your steps anyway, but it still doesn't work. Formatting it, is something it doesn't allow me to do. Thx
Even via powershell with admin?
Following the same instructions as for clean but once the correct disk is selected enter the cmds I posted:
Type: convert gpt or convert mbr and hit Enter.
Type: create partition primary and hit Enter.
Type: format quick fs=ntfs and hit Enter.
Type: assign and hit Enter.
If this still doesn’t work then you’ll have to remove the internal drive.
 
Highlight disk 1 (click on the bit where it says unallocated), select action menu, then all tasks, mark partition as active, and format the drive. No need for external programs.

If that doesnt work suggest drive has an issue.
 
Last edited:
So I was finally able to search the problem on Google, because Google gave inaccurate answers. I have to scan my disk with additional software. And it going to take a while, maybe so 5 days. I'll update you when it's done.
 
As per the reply #10 of gus, you should not need any third party software to sort this.

Google like Wikileaks cannot stop people from posting bad information and you are far safer sticking with a reputable tech support forum.
 
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