Why is "you need to format the disk..." showing even though I haven't...
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Hello, on the drive I have encrypted with VeraCrypt I keep randomly getting pop ups saying "you need to format the disk in drive before you can use it..." when I'm not even attempting to access the drive! It's as if someone else is using my computer and is trying to access it. Is this a known VeraCrypt issue or am I being hacked/have malware or something?! Thanks
Hi Tim:
You don't mention what operating system you are using, but it kind of sounds like some flavor of "Windows".
The behavior you describe can happen with either an internal ATA Hard Drive or an external USB Drive. It is much easier to permanently eliminate the behavior for "internal" HDD's!
This is probably occurring because the "Disk Partition" where your VC-Container (virtual encrypted drive) is located ALSO has a standard Windows "Drive Letter" assigned to it. To Windows-OS, this partition looks like a regular drive (with Drive Letter) but with a "RAW Disk" that needs formatting.
The Usual Solution -- Remove the Drive Letter:
(1) Login to an Administrator level account;
(2) Access your "Administrative Tools" (usually a folder or icon under the Control Panel);
(3) In the Administrative Tools, access the "Computer Management" tool;
(4) In the Computer Management tool, select the branch labelled "Storage : Disk_Management"; (It may take 2-30 seconds for the main windows to display the complete list and details of all of your disc/disk drives.)
(5) In the lower part of that window, for each physical disk (HDD), examine the visual details for every partition on every disk. Locate the disk and partition that is generating the erroneous requests to be formatted. That particular partition probable has two easily identifiable characteristics: (1) Instead of listing a standard file-system "Format" (e.g., FAT32, NTFS, eFAT) it will instead list "RAW"; and (2) It will have an assigned "Drive Letter" (e.g., "G:").
(6) Once you have located that partition, use you mouse to "right-click" on that partition, then select "Change Drive Letter . . ." from the drop-menu. Next, click the "Remove" button; confirm your choice!
So long as the partition does NOT have a drive letter assigned, you should not be asked to "Format" that "RAW" partition.
Hope this helps,
-- RadMan
Last edit: RadMan 2020-11-17
Hi RadMan, thanks for this but I know why it's doing this now - it's my anti-virus trying to do a scan! At least I know it's not something sinister. Thanks for your input, I'll look into it!
Your AV would probably NOT being trying to scan that RAW disk if that disk did not have a drive
letter assigned to it.
-- RadMan
Tim wrote: