[W8.1 x64] Format issue with HDDs. It works with USB, DVD, blu-ray discs.

G

GrenPa

Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2017
Posts
55
Hey Guys,

I had a computer crash and had to reinstall windows I tried multiple time and then took it to the shop as I could not manage to do it right.
I am running Windows 8.1 64bit and the reinstall is only a few weeks old.

Today I connected my usb3 docking bay to my system and put a new hard drive in it.
I opened computer management and initialized the drive I picked gpt and simple partition and it tried to format and failed.
i tried multiple time and it just wont work I got a western digital tool and erased the drive to start fresh.
I then tried again and did same steps and it failed again. So i used WD tool again a erased the drive again.
this time I tried mbr and not gpt and then tried again and the format fails within seconds again.
I spent 2 hours trying and i just cant get it to work.
I know i am doing it right as it worked on old system fine but the reinstall somehow has stopped it from working.

I thought maybe format tool was broken but i could format a dvd and blu-ray fine as i tried to be safe and formatted a usb.

I thought i had a bad drive so i got a different one and had same problem I could initialize it and pick simple partition but it fails to format.
The one drive was 1TB one was WD blue and other was 2tb green.

I thought maybe the docking bay was screwing up so I stuck some drives that have stuff on them in the docking bay and they were able to be accessed fine and was able to transfer on and off the drives.

So I thought maybe a windows file was corrupt so I restarted in safe mode with command prompt and ran sfc /scannow and no problems were found.
So I restarted and logged into system and then opened a elevated command prompt and ran sfc /scannow again and it found no trouble.

I then tried to format new drives again and they failed.

Is there some way to find out what is causing the issue and to fix it?
It does not make sense to me as windows had just been reinstalled lately.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Gren
 
Re: Windows 8.1 Format issue

Hi GrenPa,

Do you see an error message when the format fails? If you do, what is the message?
 
Re: Windows 8.1 Format issue

axe0 said:
Hi GrenPa,

Do you see an error message when the format fails? If you do, what is the message?
Click to expand...

Hello axe0,

Yes there is an error and it says the following:
"Virtual Disk Manager The format did not complete successfully."
It then opens a new Microsoft windows format tab that says "You need to format the disk in drive P: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?"

I try yes and it fails again.

I have run sfc /scannow from troubleshooting boot and it finds nothing wrong.
I alse ran it from elevated command prompt on reboot.
I ran a dism repair command that microsoft told me to run and that did not help.
I ran chkdsk /f c: and that did not help.
I went to device manager and right clicked all usb's listed and hit update driver which one item updated to better driver.
i opened bios and made sure xchi was enabled and it was/is enabled.


On my pc I can open drives fine from the unit and put stuff on it or take stuff off it.
It just simply wont allow a drive to be formatted by windows and i tried many drives since i posted my first post in the thread..

I can initialize drives fine it is just trying to make a partition and format it fails on my pc.
The unit works on another computer running windows 7.

Hope this helps as it is driving me nuts.
Thanks in advance
Fred
 
Re: Windows 8.1 Format issue

Hi GrenPa. :wave:

Show us a picture/screenshot of your disk management (all columns expanded) and the result of diskpart.
From an elevated command prompt, launch this commands:
Code: 
diskpart
list disk
' comment: disk 0 is usually the system disk.
' comment: You should write the number of the disk you are trying to format
select disk 0
attributes disk
 
Re: Windows 8.1 Format issue

Could you try this command in an admin command prompt or admin powershell.
Code: 
FORMAT P: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:New
 
Hey Guys and Gals,

Thanks for the help with my issue, I really appreciate it.

Ill try to cover as much as I can of what i know.

As of this point i have the drive formatted as I switch from usb 3 to usb 2 which is where it sits right now.
As for diskpart I did that which I will attempt again tomorrow when i put unit back on usb 3.
Before when I did it it listed drives as 0 to 7 with 7 being the drive I selected it before and tried to format it and it failed.
I then tried the clean command and tired again and it failed. (I will do it again tomorrow when I am more awake and can see better)
I can format usb sticks using usb 3 ports and usb 3 sticks as I have both.

Now I think I figured out the problem but can't fix it as my knowledge is limited.
I guess Windows assigned the the USB 3 and it skipped the mobo drives I have installed them but cant make device manage switch to them.
The mobo drivers for usb 3 are a exe file I cant see where they install so I tried to look in the exe using 7zip but it does not work like others so i cant find the proper inf as i dont know where they were installed.

to make this easier my mobo is GA-990fxa-uds R4 running bios F3 the link to board is here GA-990FXA-UD3 (rev. 4.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE and under support you will see al the drivers. I am running Windows 8.1 64bit.
There are two usb 3 drives listed but I think one is a mistake as it says xp when I downloaded it and i think the other is the correct one and is ver [V4.90A] so as i said i downloaded and ran the setup but my bios is still showing a much newer driver even if i tell it to check for new driver it stays with window assigned one.
Device Manager 1.jpg

So in device manager under universal serial bus controller I have lots of items listed I have assume that the usb 3 one is the VIA USB eXtensible Host Controller As I have USB 3 ub connect to port and a USB Mass storage device which is also on usb 3. (for the record I did not have units plugged in the hub/. The hub is used only for flash drives.)
Now if I go to the eXtensible Host controller and look at driver it says Driver Provider VIA , Driver date 2014-10-31, Driver version 6.1.7600.4903 and singer is Microsoft windows Hardware Compatability Publisher. if i click driver details it lists 3 driver files usbfiltersys, xhcdrv.sys and a wdfcoinstaller01011.dll and then provider says Advanced micro systems, file version 2.0.10.273 built by: winDDK.
I assume the AMD is from my mobo chipset and not the USB 3 drivers. As said i am unsure.

I will add to all this that while trying to fix this issue I lost all my drives except c, f and g as they are internal sata. That happened from uninstalling and reinstalling drivers and windows did not like some of the choices. I got the other drives to appear after rolling back drivers.

I will also add there is a difference between my Usb 3 ports I think 2 ports are built into the mobo but the other 2 are using pins on the mobo to front mounted usb 3 connectors.
I tried using both to format the drives and they all failed to format hdd's I tried multiple drives all new. I know drives a re good as I did format them today with the docking bays using usb 2 instead of usb 3 ports.

So I will post pictures asked for tomorrow when i try again using usb 3.

Hope this all makes sense as sometimes (most) i suck at explanations.
Thanks again
Fred
 
I guess Windows assigned the the USB 3 and it skipped the mobo drives I have installed them but cant make device manage switch to them.
Click to expand...
Do you mean Windows installed the USB 3 drivers and skipped motherboard drivers? Which drivers do you mean? Windows doesn't skip drivers, it only installs a few of the onces Gigabyte provides, any others need to be installed by you.
 
axe0 said:
I guess Windows assigned the the USB 3 and it skipped the mobo drives I have installed them but cant make device manage switch to them.
Click to expand...
Do you mean Windows installed the USB 3 drivers and skipped motherboard drivers? Which drivers do you mean? Windows doesn't skip drivers, it only installs a few of the onces Gigabyte provides, any others need to be installed by you.
Click to expand...

Hello,

Yes thats what i mean.
So during windows reinstall the tech added the pre-install drivers as reccomended.
All the other system drivers where then add to windows once it was running as per gigabytes instructions.
So we saw that windows had assigned usb 3 generic windows drivers before we installed the mobo ones.
We installed the usb 3 drivers nothing changed on the system and I can find where the usb 3 mobo drivers installed as they were an exe file and not inf files.
So I want to try with the mobo drivers but it does not say where they are installed.
I tried to view inside the exe using 7zip but it cant open this exe like it does with others as i was going to extract the inf and try a manual update.

Anyways here are the pictures people wanted.
CM 1.jpgCM 2.jpgCMD 1.jpgError 1.jpgError 2.jpg

Ok now to explain more I moved docking bay back to usb 3 and deleted the disk partition to sow you what happens.
So the disk is initialized and I go to make new simple volume I click thru the choices and then it tries to format it fails.
I then to to do it again and again it fails. But the drive shows it is healthy after the first attempt but it is not.

Now I can more the docking stations back to usb 2 and then I can make them with no issue and they work fine.
Once they are formatted I can move units back to usb 3 and they will read and write fine but if i want to wipe on I cant and have to move units back to usb 2.


They docking bays worked fine on usb 3 before I had to have windows reinstalled.

I did not know what this FORMAT P: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:New is so I was wary of running it as i did not want to wipe a drive by mistake.

Right now i am moving docking bays back to usb 2 and will set up the drives I need there since they work on usb 2 fine.

Any other ideas? If not I guess I could buy a new usb 3 card that comes with its own drivers.

Thanks in advance
Fred
 
GrenPa said:
I did not know what this FORMAT P: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:New is so I was wary of running it as i did not want to wipe a drive by mistake.
Click to expand...

Code: 
FORMAT P: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:New
This command will format your drive that received P: as letter.
It will be formatted with filesystem (/FS) NTFS.
The format will be quick (/Q).
It will be labelled (/V) New. I.e., the label of the new partition/volume will be New.

I would have added the /X parameter to the command: it dismounts the volume (if necessary).
 
Hello,

I tried that command and it failed as this picture will show.
Error 3.jpg

Any other ideas by chance?

Thanks in advance
Fred
 
From an elevated command prompt, run this command (it just asks details about your drive):
Code: 
[B]fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo p:[/B]
Then post its result here.
Example:
Read More:
In the meanwhile, you can try the previous command along with the /X parameter (i.e., FORMAT P: /FS:NTFS /Q /X /V:New)... If the P letter is still assigned to the drive.
 
xilolee said:
From an elevated command prompt, run this command (it just asks details about your drive):
Code: 
[B]fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo p:[/B]
Then post its result here.
Example:
Read More:
In the meanwhile, you can try the previous command along with the /X parameter (i.e., FORMAT P: /FS:NTFS /Q /X /V:New)... If the P letter is still assigned to the drive.
Click to expand...



Hey Xilolee,

Well This will be strange but here goes, I can not do what you suggested this time.
Something in windows is being nuts! Ill try to explain.
I have had some updates from Windows and now windows is being stupid.
When I connect docking bays and units to the usb 3 they no longer show and make my other usb 3 items disappear.
On top of that computer management cant access anything if the units are connected to usb 3 not he units or any drive.
Computer management storage wont open It simply sits there saying accessing virtual driver or drives and nothing happens.
So I went into services.msc and went to virtual drive and set to automatic start as it was set to manual.
I then restarted and once I logged in i got a BSOD for a file mvs91xx.sys and then it restarted on its own.
Then after the restart I went into explorer and all my external drives were gone not listed at all I was able to open computer management this time and drives were not there.
I did several restarts and could not get my drives back so I ran sfc /scannow from elevated command prompt and found not errors.
I ran dism commands and it found no errors.
So I shut down my docking bays but left them connected and refreshed explorer many times others drive never appeared.
I did some restarts and still the drives did not come back so I swore about a million times and disconnect the docking bays from usb 3 and restarted.
At this point after it restarted and i logged in the drives were still gone.
I went back into services.msc and set virtual drive to manual which is what is was before.
i then restarted yet again and now all my other drives are back.

So I connected the docking bays back to usb 3 and now they are never seen and I tried for over a day.
i thought maybe a bad cable so I purchase new usb 3 cables and that did not help.
I connected usb 3 flash drive to ports and they are seen fine.
I finally gave up and reconnected docking bays back to usb 2 and they work fine on there.

I am not sure what the heck is going on but i think I am ready to give up.
I will purchase some new usb3 pci cards and an estata card and try those at a later date.
But i will make sure they each come with a drivers disk.

So at this time I am giving up on trying to get docking bays back on usb 3.
Now that my other drives that are on usb 3 work again I will settle with docking bays on usb 2 for my hotswap needs.

Thanks for all your help and the help of the others.
I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and/or Holiday Season.
Thanks again.
Fred
 
jcgriff2 said:
GrenPa said:
...I then restarted and once I logged in i got a BSOD for a file mvs91xx.sys and then it restarted on its own.
Click to expand...

Hi Fred. . .

mvs91xx.sys is a Marvell SATA Controller driver

See if you can find an update for it -

https://www.sysnative.com/drivers/driver.php?id=mvs91xx.sys

Regards. . .

jcgriff2
Click to expand...



Hey jcgriff2,

Ok I reinstalled the driver and my drives are back again.
But still can't format them using the docking bays on usb 3 ports.

I have a question, my mobo chipset drivers are pretty old on disk and the mobo online chipset drivers are the same.
But I went to the AMD chipset drivers on amd site and they are much newer.
Should I give them a shot and if so if they dont work can they be uninstalled and the old ones put back on without needing to reinstall Windows 8.1?

I will also ask this question to you or others.
I noticed in my bios the bios settings are set for other os but there is a setting for windows 8.
Can I attempt to set it to windows 8 or would that screw up current Windows 8.1 setup?
I ask as some sites I have found said it is windows 7 and 8 that can handle port multiple for esata and that the wrong setting can screw up other ports.

Last question (for now), If I purchased new usb 3 and esata cards do you think they would work or would i still be in same boat with same issue with them?

Thanks in advance
Fred
 
jcgriff2 said:
GrenPa said:
...I then restarted and once I logged in i got a BSOD for a file mvs91xx.sys and then it restarted on its own.
Click to expand...

Hi Fred. . .

mvs91xx.sys is a Marvell SATA Controller driver

See if you can find an update for it -

https://www.sysnative.com/drivers/driver.php?id=mvs91xx.sys

Regards. . .

jcgriff2
Click to expand...

Hey jcgriff2,

I found out the issue with everything but don't know if it is safe to fix the issue.
After speaking to the company who made my system (not the reinstall company) they found a tech who remembers how their default bios settings were.
There is a setting in my bios for windows version, right now it shows as other but the company says it needs to be set to Windows 8 or 8.1 in the bios to make all features work correctly.

What they could not tell me is if i change the bios OS setting from other os to Windows 8 setting is if I would have to reinstall windows again.
They said they are unsure if it would screw up current windows sdd settings and they say even if i switched back to other os setting if it did not work that it still might not be able to boot again.

So as of now my question is would it be safe to switch it?
As the tech said the setting needs to be set to Windows 8 in bios to get the esata and the usb 3 ports working correctly.


If you or anyone knows please let me know.
Thanks in advance
Fred
 
xilolee said:
And what's the exact setting name?
Is it Bios features, OS type?
It seems you shouldn't choose the "Windows 8 WHQL" Setting:
is only for Systemintegrators to run a full Microsoft WHQL test. Please don´t use this for normal operation.
Click to expand...

Why don't you try to contact gigabyte support? (click)
Click to expand...

Hey xilolee,

It say OS Type and its set to other. It does not list Windows 8 WHQL or if it does the last part is ....
I have spoken to Gigabyte both on phone and email my last phone bill was massive as its not toll free from where i live.
i spent hours a day on phone with them.
My PC was made by CyberpowerPC and just yesterday I finally got a tech who remembers building my system type he insists the OS setting must be set to Windows 8 to get my esata ports to see and use my 4 bay enclosures instead of only seeing 1 drive now per enclosure.
He also said my USB 3 issue is also related to setting as my system has all drivers from disk on the system.
He advised me to switch the setting to windows 8 but did not know If I could switch it without causing problems or having to do another fresh install.
He advised I contact Gigabyte and depending on the techI am told to leave as is and other techs at gigabyte say switch setting to Windows 8 now.
They also say they dont know if i can switch the setting without doing a full windows reinstall.

Then late yesterday I was in contact with Microsoft who advised to clone my drive c: to an identical drive just to be safe and then try the switch.
He said i may get BSOD or may not and suggested I try but to make sure i clone drive.
He also said gigabyte should know all the answers and or the maker of my pc.
So after contacting gigabyte again several times as my cordless phone ran out of juice one tech said i could try but to check with Microsoft or my computer maker.
The other tech simply did not know and said to leave as is.

The manual shows Manual Giga.jpg and not much else on that setting.

I am at the point where I will clone my drive in a few days and try the switch as cyberpowerpc did tell me yesterday a tech who built them insists i must have the os set to Windows 8.
I can/will enter my bios latter today and take some picture of each page/setting just so people can see what each item s set for.


Hope this makes sense.
Thanks in advance
Fred
 
I thought they can also reply via email.

It could be that setting name is another name of "secure boot".
In this case, you can switch it anytime (at least I can on my asrock MB and on my previous packard-bell/acer board).
Only gigabyte support (or some of its clients with a similar motherboard but with the same setting) can know it.
 

Has Sysnative Forums helped you? Please consider donating to help us support the site!

Back
Top