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You need to format the disk in drive E"?

Hi,

My Forerunner 235 is not being recognized by my PC since a couple of days.
PC gives the message "You need to format the disk in drive E".

I reset the watch in two ways 1) holding the lap button while powering up , 2) via the restore defaults menu. This didn't help.
I formatted drive E: via disk management on my PC; but after power cycling the watch the same message "You need to format the disk in drive E" pops up again.

I've written to Garmin support in the Netherlands; but since they're closed over the weekend; I was hoping someone here might have an idea.

thx
  • Same issue

    I hit this as well starting around the same time --- anyone else?
  • Issue with Windows 10

    Hello,

    I did some testing and research and this appears to be an issue with recent insider builds of Windows 10 (I'm specifically hitting it on 14393.x). The USB device drivers recognizes the device but not the FAT partitioned volume. I tested with a few other USB sticks and they didn't have a problem, so it might be something specific to how garmin factory formatted the device or the odd volume size (~12mb).

    So far the only workaround I've hit is to install garmin express on a 10586.x based computer.

    If you search for "garmin" in the windows insider feedback app, you'll see others that's also hit this problem --- I encourage others to upvote.
  • Garmin support pointed me to these instructions: https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7Be9a42540-68cd-11e3-f27b-000000000000%7D

    For me they didn't work and I am waiting now for an update from Garmin support. But maybe they work for you......
  • Same issue

    I don't think this will help since the specific note on recent Windows 10 builds is to add ipod usb drive support. I think this inadvertently broke Garmin.

    I ended up rolling back the build and things works fine now --- it seems to me a clear cut case of the drivers being updated to support a new scenario but breaking older ones.
  • It seems like you are right; I hadn't connected it to the insider builds; but I am also on the fast ring.

    I have tested with another forerunner 235 and it has the same problem; so indeed seems to be windows related and not the watch itself.

    I'll have a look at the insider hub and upvote the issue. Thx for your reply !
  • Addressed...

    Just to circle back on this one last time, garmin posted a sticky on this issue. With an updated version of Garmin Express it should work with latest builds, and they said a forthcoming fix is coming from Microsoft by 8/30.

    https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?357499-Device-is-not-detected-in-Windows-10-after-updating-to-the-Anniversary-update
  • You can use CHKDSK or Check Disk Utility to check for issues:

    Take note of the drive letter in the error e.g. “You need to format the disk in drive H: before you can use it, do you want to format it”. Your external hard drive letter is H. Right-click on the Start Menu and select Command Prompt or type “cmd” and hit Enter to run it as administrator. In the pop-up command window, type “chkdsk drive letter:f”, since your drive letter is “H”, then simply type “chkdsk H:f” and hit Enter.

    If you don't want to lose the data, I suggest you recover the data before fixing the issue or formating the disk. You can try Bitwar Data Recovery to retrieve the data on the disk, and save the data to another device. Then you can try to format the disk to solve this error.

  • I get the "format the disk" comment too, in January 2020. I'm a Windows insider getting updates to Win 10 Education (similar to Pro). The message seems to do no harm other than I can't access my files to clean out old clutter. I'm also having difficulty syncing today. Since writing this message, I've charged my watch to give it more power (2 out of 4 bars). Since I had a Windows update today, I turned off my computer and restarted it. My cell phone is fully charged. Anyway, a reboot of my recently updated Win 10 Education computer got my watch to sync for total steps but I lost all my recent activities (runs with miles and HR).

  • I'm having the same issue.. Win 10.  Garmin 235 Has worked perfectly...   I do believe I have installed the Win 10 service pack since last sync though.....  ANyone have ideas?