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XP Format Issue

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by digital_dna 1 view

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I'm having difficulty formating a Hard Drive. The system was already running Windows XP so I know that the problem is not a compatibility issue.

Here's the deal:

When I attempt to format the drive the process goes to the end where I and prompted with a message "error formating the drive".

Things I've tried:

1.) Deleted all partition's as well as recreated the partition. The drive was originally split into two partitions. I tried formating as one partition. FAILS!

2.) Ran the manufacturer's diagnostic utility on the drive. The drive passed all tests. Format still FAILS!

3.) Performed a full Low Level Format of the drive. Windows XP format still fails!

Any ideas?

I've owned two Maxtor Hard Drive's in my life and both failed within one year of purchase. I've owned 30 Western Digital Hard Drives and never had a problem. Hmmmm!

11 replies

by digital_dna

Poster rated this answer.
Not an option. Windows 95's FORMAT will not properly format a drive larger than 32 GB without a high probablility for data loss. Windows 98's FORMAT will incorrectly show the capacity of the drive minus 64 GB. For example, if the drive is 80 GB, the capacity is shown as 11 GB. I choose not to use these versions of FORMAT because the drive in question is over 64 GB.

Thanks

by mukom_tamon

Well what disk format tools withing win xp did you use? Try using the disk management tool. By the way, I hope the disk is not a dynamic disk? Also run Norton's Disk Doctor on it and see what comes up. Good luck

by digital_dna

Poster rated this answer.
I can't use the disk management tool. There is no OS on the hard drive. As far as I know there is no way to format with disk management tool if there is no OS installed. I could be wrong.

Thanks

by chris910

Let me relate a Challenge that I experienced.
--4 or 5 year old mother board
--Maxtor 10GB HD
The Bios recognised the full size of the hard drive and I could partition the drive however every time I tried to format the drive it would error out as you described above.
Solution: The bios did not completly support HD's over 8.4GB. Downloaded Maxtors Maxblast 3 utilities and loaded the Overlay utilities. I was then able to format the drive and load the OS.
MAXBLAST 3 http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/maxblast3.htm

by digital_dna

Poster rated this answer.
Thanks for the information it is very informative. However, I know the BIO's supports the drive because the drive in question was already formated with Windows XP. I never had a problem formating the drive before, why now?

I suppose the problem could be BIOS related. I believe I read something about a UDMA issue. I'm going to check the settings and make sure it is disabled in the BIOS and try again. If that dosen't work I'm going to end up installing a new WESTERN DIGITAL DRIVE!

Thanks
EBCDIC

by digital_dna

&*(@(*@

I'm going to kill this thing.. Installed the new hard drive (same problem)!!! I finally got XP to format the drive. I can only perform a quick format though. I'm not going to be satisfied until I know why the format doesn't work right. Sometimes it formats other times it won't. I never had a problem before!

I've gone through the whole process 5 times now trying to isolate the problem. I can't figure it out. I've changed the IDE Cables, disconnected the Zip Drive (which is on the Primary IDE with the hard drive.) I know I'm not the only person to run across this problem. I've seen Newsgroup posts on it. Haven't found a solution yet. Anyone!!!

by csmith

Usually when the drive passes all of the manufacturers tests, and will not format, it is a boot sector virus.
Try several antivirus floppies on this one.
(No one Antivirus Program finds all viruses.)
I have seen a corrupt BIOS cause this, but it is very, very, rare. A virus is almost always it.
Regards, Chris

by digital_dna

Poster rated this answer.
Thanks Chris,

The problem can't be a boot sector virus because the drive is brand new. Nither the old drive or the new drive will format. I get the same error for both drives. This leads me to believe that the problems is elsewhere. Could be an IDE Cable. I already changed one. I'm in the process of changing the other. I'll let everyone following this post know what the problem was when I figure it out.

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