Formatting a hard drive

[markspeed]

Can anyone who understands Western Digital HDD's and Windows Vista tell my why my Caviar Green 1.5 TB drive will only make two 500 gig partitions, and the remaining volume will not format?

All ESD procedures followed.

This is the second drive to fail like this. I returned the previous drive last night. And immediatlely the second drive has failed.

I initialized the drive following the steps on the WD site.

I followed the formatting steps at same site. Using the sites diagnostic tool I downloaded and trying to run a test, and the test works for about 30 seconds, and then the time ticker predicts something like millions of hours to complete.

I do not expect the mathematical improbability that two drives can have the same exact failure. I need real advice, and or help from people who really understand these things.

I do not wanna spend money for some geek squad know-nothing to tell me the power supply isn't providing enough power, I should just get a new computer, or whatever no effort spend more money solutions they dispatch because they don't know the answer.

I'm really hoping the vast and knowledgable folks here at no grip can tell me what I'm doing wrong, or not doing at all. I don't know enough about computers to know what I don't know, or what I should be doing. Hard drives are supposed to be plug and play, and the last two were just that. All of a sudden, hard drives are complicated? And don't want to format. Whatever.

If I have to take this drive back, I'm going to be extremely displeased as I don't feel like playing the which brand makes a functional peice of garbage this week game.


Anyway, ranting aside, this all feels like something I'm not doing, or something my PC is doing which is mucking up the process. Like I said, it's virtually impossible for two drives to have the exact same problem. Either this drive just isn't compatible....completely, or something is happening that I don't understand.

[markspeed]

Its a Western Digital, Caviar Green, 1.5 TB 32mb buffer SATA/300 Internal Hard Drive.

It will format two partitions of 500 gig or less. Or 1 partition of 700 and will not format the remaining volume. It keeps having an error and cannot format.

I cannot scan the disc untill it's formatted. The check I did from the the WD sites tool on the last drive said it found too many bad sectors. I have tried the check on the second drive and it gets stuck on stupid after just 30 seconds or so.

I don't know what to do. Hopefully some here can help.

[Klapaucjusz]

1st - make sure that you have the latest mobo drivers (do you have nVidia chipset? - download directly from their site).

2nd - if it's not enough to solve your problem try using Easeus Partition Master Home Edition (http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html) to format your HDD.

[markspeed]

1st - make sure that you have the latest mobo drivers (do you have nVidia chipset? - download directly from their site).

2nd - if it's not enough to solve your problem try using Easeus Partition Master Home Edition (http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html) to format your HDD.



Do you mean GPU chipset? My processer is an AMD.


AMD Athlon(tm)64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00 GHz

Internal Graphic is Nvidia.

GPU is an Nvidia GeForce 210

Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit.


What do yo mean by mobo drivers? Motherboard? If so where do I find them? AMD's site?

[markspeed]

I have DL'd Easeus and am running a surface test.

If all goes well with that, I will try to format. Unless I need to rebuild the MBR, because maybe Vista sucks at that like everything else.

[Klapaucjusz]

No, not GPU. Mobo = motherboard. As I said - it's best to download from nVidia's site (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us). You have to know which nForce chipset you have - if you know the exact model of your motherboard, you will find it (for example nForce 570 SLI AMD or something like that).

[markspeed]

That I don't know. I could look and see if I can find a number on the mobo somewhere. But at the moment I'm still running the surface test.


Status report- The Surface test seems to have gotten stuck. It's at 73.292% complete, which is where the other drive got stuck too.

This is really creepy and weird and annoying. Two drives grabbed from two different places on the shelf, odds being there were stocked on shelf from two different cases, meaning from far apart on the assembly line, and possibly eliminating the chance they both were defective from the manufacturing process. And yet both drives have the same problem.

What are the odds that returning this drive and picking up a third will result in the same problem for a third time?

Can someone tell me if it could be a jumper setting problem? Cause the instructions I read indicate that for XP SP3, Vista, and Windows 7 no jumper is required.

[DurgeDriven]

No matter what OS I format mine the same way.

Disconnect all other drives and boot from a XP CD.

Delete any exisiting partitons and reboot from XP CD again ( if needed )

Should show 1500mb space ready to format.



You do not need to be surface testing.


Yeah I format ALL HDD with XP first then run whichever OS I am setting up.
That ensures I DO NOT get that PESKY ! 100mb partiton/space W7 makes. ! Too easy. !

[Klapaucjusz]

Two drives grabbed from two different places on the shelf, odds being there were stocked on shelf from two different cases, meaning from far apart on the assembly line, and possibly eliminating the chance they both were defective from the manufacturing process. And yet both drives have the same problem.
They are not defective. It's a known problem with >1TB drives. But it's not HDD problem, but chipset/drivers/system one. You have to identify your chipset first. Try running HWiNFO32 (http://www.hwinfo.com/files/hw32_382.zip) (no need to install).

[DurgeDriven]

They are not defective. It's a known problem with >1TB drives. But it's not HDD problem, but chipset/drivers/system one. You have to identify your chipset first. Try running HWiNFO32 (http://www.hwinfo.com/files/hw32_382.zip) (no need to install).


Exactly the drive tests are just wasting time. ;)

If he just trys a XP install I am 99% it will work.

[Eyghon(NG)]

I would first off check and make sure you have the lastest Mobo BIOS, if you have had the Mobo a while and never done it before it will be several updates out, one of the later BIOSes may include better support for >1TB HD's.

[markspeed]

Status update- Klapaucjusz's Easeus Partition Master Home Edition has worked. It formatted the drive. I only selected it to be 1 partition. But it registers as a 1.36 TB with 1,500,291,039,232 bytes so I don't know what that descrepancy is about but my C drive is just like that so.... whatever.

I've learned after bitter experience to just not question why things work. If I have a problem and it's above my literacy I then come to sites like this, and request the help of the online community and then just follow the suggestions. I don't know enough to know why software works or doesn't.


Now about the mobo bios...... I need to determine what kind of board I have, and then go to that site and dl the lastest drivers?

[markspeed]

They are not defective. It's a known problem with >1TB drives. But it's not HDD problem, but chipset/drivers/system one. You have to identify your chipset first. Try running HWiNFO32 (no need to install).



This clicky says it runs NT/2000/XP. Does it matter that I have Vista, or is it refering to itself and my OS is irrelevant?

[ADSTA]

The program CPU-Z will tell you your mobo and bios versions.
CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.com/)

[markspeed]

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2822/mymoboithink001.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/199/mymoboithink001.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)



Is this the right info?

[DurgeDriven]

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2822/mymoboithink001.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/199/mymoboithink001.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)



Is this the right info?

Yes but it is incomplete from that all we know is its is nforce4/6100/6150 but have no idea what model ECS motherboard it is.

Your BIOS is v6.
From what I see most MCP61 at Elite are updated to v7 or v8 but without motherboard MODEL its impossible to know.

Personally I wouldnt touch it if it is formatted and running the only time you want to flash bios is when you need a specific update.


HOW to TELL your ECS/ELITE MOTHERBOARD MODEL
=======================================
http://www.ecs.com.tw/extra/productinfo/MB.htm

[Klapaucjusz]

Status update- Klapaucjusz's Easeus Partition Master Home Edition has worked. It formatted the drive. I only selected it to be 1 partition. But it registers as a 1.36 TB with 1,500,291,039,232 bytes so I don't know what that descrepancy is about but my C drive is just like that so.... whatever.
This is a correct size for a 1.5TB drive. You succeeded. :)

BTW - HWiNFO32 should work on Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista/Server 2003/2008/Windows 7 - according to their site.

[bozont]

hd producers count 1 MB as 1000 kB. for the OS and all other PC stuff 1 MB is 1024 kB. thats all that diference.... yes it sucks when 500GB disk has only 465 GB :mrgreen:

[markspeed]

This is a correct size for a 1.5TB drive. You succeeded. :)

BTW - HWiNFO32 should work on Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista/Server 2003/2008/Windows 7 - according to their site.



And that would be thanks to you my friend from Poland. :thumbup:

[Klapaucjusz]

I'm glad I could help. :D