The problem
There is a user who has this problem too, like he said: I have a new 4TB external
hard drive and tried to make a bootable drive. However, I see there are two parts as
unallocated space, each partition is about 2TB, and I can only access the 2TB of it.
The option is create a new partition or format volume is grayed out when right click
the 2nd partition. I know there is nothing wrong with my external hard
drive. Now I just want to merge the two partitions as one. So I run DiskPart command
(format fs=ntfs quick label=data) to format but I get an error “Virtual Disk Service
Error: the volume is not formattable”.
The reason
Now, we can analyze the reason why it shows virtual disk service error after DiskPart
command prompt in Windows 7/8/10. The most possible reason would be the MBR
partititon style if the external hard drive has no problem. As we all know,
partition style contains MBR (Master Boot Record) and GPT (GUID Partition Table).
The user used a MBR hard drive, which the capacity is up to 2TB while the GPT
supports 256TB. Thus, the remaining space cannot be accessed or formattable when the
partition style is MBR in the drive.
The solutions
Best way to fix/repair virtual disk service error the volume is not
formattable
The problem is easy to solve, you can convert MBR to GPT without losing data to fix
the DiskPart the volume is not formattable error with the best disk partition manager-AOMEI
Partition Assistant Standard in Windows 7/8/10, now you can download this magic conversion tool. Compared
with DiskPart and Disk Management, this software is better by one tally. You have to
backup data when you use the DiskPart or Disk Management due to the data loss of the
conversion.
To solve the Virtual disk service error the volume is not formattable error, the
simple steps as follows:
1. Execute the program, right click the hard drive you want to operate on the main
window, choose Convert to GPT Disk.

2.Tick OK to confirm converting MBR to GPT without losing data.

3.Click Apply to repair the Virtual disk service error the volume is not
formattable issue.

After this operation, the virtual disk service error will be solved. Then you could merge two partitions, resize partition to increase or
reduce partition size, migrate OS to
SSD, etc.
Tips: You might try AOMEI
Partition Assistant Professional to convert system disk from MBR to GPT or vice
versa. The Standard edition is capable of converting between MBR and GPT on data
disk.
Besides, you could try to make bootable media with this partition manager after
converting, here is the tip:
Prepare
a USB flash drive at least 16GB or external hard drive, connect with the
computer.
Open AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, choose Make Bootable
Media under Wizards.

Warning:
l The
DiskPart command and Disk Management will damage your crucial data while fixing the
Virtual disk error the volume is not formattable problem, please backup data before
you converting.
l You
have to make sure that the motherboard support EFI/UEFI boot mode. It cannot boot
the operating system on GPT hard drive if the motherboard only supports BIOS boot
mode.
DiskPart command
1. Type diskpart in search box on the desk.
2. Input list disk.
3. Type select disk [disknumber].
4. Input clean to delete partitions on MBR disk.
5. Input convert gpt.

Disk Management
Right click This PC->manage->Disk Management, then
convert MBR to GPT. Make sure you have backup the critical information. If your disk
has partitions, please delete all of it and then convert MBR to GPT without losing
data.
Further Reading:Other virtual disk service
errors
What is the Virtual disk service means. The Virtual disk service (VDS) is a set of
application programming interfaces (APIs) that provides a single interface for
managing your storage devices such as creating or deleting, formatting volumes,
assigning drive letters to volumes and converting basic disk into dynamic disk and
so on. It is supported on Windows server 2003, Windows Vista and later. The
components working with virtual disk service include the Disk Management snap-in,
the DiskPart command-line tool, and the DiskRAID command-line tool (Diskraid.exe).
Thus, you may meet the problem “Virtual Disk Service Error: the volume is not
formattable” when you format the volume.