Do you want to format it?' Obviously I don't want to format it as that means I lose all my data…' So basically, when it is plugged in, every 10 seconds or so it disappears and then reappears with this pop-up message: ' You need to format the disk in drive G: before you can use it. I have 2.8 TB of files, pictures, videos and more on that drive with no backups of it anywhere. 'So I have a Seagate 3TB External Hard Drive that all of a sudden tells me it needs to be formatted. My Seagate External Hard Drive Shows Not Formatted They typically have large capacities and can be connected to computer via USB port or FireWire.Įxternal hard drives enjoy different forms, such as SSD, USB flash drive, Sony pen drive and so on, and vary a lot in their capacities from gigabytes to terabyte…However, you may see external USB hard drive not formatted error, saying you need to format the disk before you can use it considering there are important files on the hard drive, you feel uneasy.