I Cant Run a Disk Check on an External Hard Drive. Check your drives cable for debris, which can affect connectivity. I Cant Format My Hard Drive Vista' title='I Cant Format My Hard Drive Vista' />Thomas NorthcutStockbyteGetty Images. Making sure your companys hard drives are free of errors helps to protect against the loss of important data. How you go about performing a disk check on a hard drive has changed somewhat with the introduction of Windows 8. It is now less obvious how to perform a check, leading some to conclude that the functionality has been removed. But you can still access the CHKDSK utility through File Explorer. If the CHKDSK utility does not work, you can also run a disk check on your external hard drive via the Command Prompt. Initial Troubleshooting. Before proceeding to more advanced solutions, check that the hard drive is functioning and otherwise communicating properly with the computer. Turn the hard drive off, unplug it from the computer, plug it back in and turn it back on. Wait for the computer to detect that the hard drive is connected. Open the File Explorer application on your computer and double click on the external hard drive on the list of removable storage devices. If you can view the contents of the hard drive in File Explorer, then the hard drive and computer are communicating properly. Verify CHKDSK Settings. Microsoft redesigned how disk checks are performed in Windows 8. Disks are automatically checked during your computers Automatic Maintenance procedures. You can nevertheless run a manual disk check on an external hard drive via the CHKDSK utility. To launch this utility, right click the drive in File Explorer and click Properties. Click the Tools tab, and then click Check to launch the CHKDSK utility, which automatically begins scanning the drive for errors. Run CHKDSK From Command Prompt. If youre unable to run the disk check using the standard CHKDSK utility, you can run it from the Command Prompt instead. To open the Command Prompt, type cmd on the Windows 8 Start screen and click Command Prompt. Hozelock Bioforce 2200 Manual. Type the following into Command Prompt and press Enter to run the disk check chkdsk f E Replace the letter E with the letter corresponding to your external hard drive. If youre unsure of the letter associated with the drive, open File Explorer and look for the drive on the list of removable storage devices. Format Disk From Command Prompt. If you run the Check Disk tool in Command Prompt and decide that you would then like to format the drive, you can do so via Command Prompt as well. Back up any data you want to save before proceeding. Once all important data is backed up, launch Command Prompt again, and this time enter the following command format E fs ntfs Again, replace the letter E with the letter corresponding to your external hard drive. Press Enter to start the formatting process. Fix USB Flash Drive Does Not Detect or Cant Access Files On It. Depending on the speed and size of your external hard drive, the formatting process can take several minutes. About the Author. Andrew Tennyson has been writing about culture, technology, health and a variety of other subjects since 2. He has been published in The Gazette, DTR and ZCom. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and a Master of Fine Arts in writing. Photo Credits. Thomas NorthcutStockbyteGetty Images. As you likely know, while one can install Windows 7 from an external hard drive, one cant install the same to an external hard drive with default settings. For all. I Think My Hard Drive Is Failing, What Shall I Do So you are worried that a hard drive failure is just around the corner The truth is, even if you are not worried. Trouble You may have faced a problem when you insert your pen drive and it gets detected very easily but it doesnt show up as a drive icon in My Computer. Fix External USB Hard Disk drive not detecting not working properly problem in Windows 8, 7, Vista XP.