You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it

[ChrisGreaves]

There are many pages on the web which address this issue.

I read some of them. (Later: I forgot o add that I was amazed that the pages I did read seemed to focus on backing up data, formatting the drive, es-creating the partitions etc etc; not one (that I dead) gave me a clue about thinking of the Driuve rather than the Port. Hence my post)

I was puzzled because I had thought I'd resolved the issue during a recent re-installation of Win7HP.

It turns out that (surprise!) the message is related to the spinning platters, not the USB slot.

In my case I have TWO TrueCrypted USB hard drives which I use to make parallel backups each night. Plug one in, run backup, plug in the other, run backup.

First backup after system build I get the message. I know what to do:-
Explorer, right-click on Computer, Manage, Disk management. Select the offending drive, right-click and "Remove" drive letter.
Problem solved!

Turns out that I have to do that for BOTH drives.
I had thought that I was removing the drive letter "F" from the USB-socket in the side of the laptop.
I'm not. The message applies to each individual drive.

This explains hours of frustration over the years; and now it all seems do sanglant obvious ...

(signed) "Occasionaly simple-minded" of Toronto.

[John Gray]

Remember the old saying: "It's socket to me time!"...