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cannot format hdd

B

blindspot

Member
I've been trying to format my 20GB hdd to no avail. It formats up to 2% then stops with the message: Not ready. Format terminated. I have changed the cables with the same results. I tried another 40GB hd, and it stops at 6%. Is it possible I have 2 defective hdd.
Motherboard: a7v133

please help....
 
What proggy are you using to format? Dos FORMAT? Or the utility that the manufacturer provides.

If I was you. I would have no other ide devices (assuming its ide) on your mobo. Re fdisk to remove your old partitions then remake them. Then format again. I would also make a new boot disk from someone elses computer in case your format is corrupt or you have a virus on the floppy or something along that line.

Also if you overclock, turn it off.
 
On the A7V, which mobo connections are you using?

I had this prob once on the ATA100 controller, switched to the ATA66 and it formatted fine...
 
I had a friend who had a similar problem before. In DOS, his HDD just wouldn't format. I kept trying to get it to format (Format C: going over and over into command line), and it finally did format 😀 I thought the HDD was becoming defective, but his board just sux, and his comp is unstable (It's this KX133 board).
 
It's definately the hard drive. I've experienced it many times over with virtually every brand of drive. Most people have no idea their drive is defective until this happens! Western Digital and IBM have diagnostic utilities that can communicate with their drive's controllers and remap bad sectors to spare good ones on the disk. I would NEVER get anything but WD or IBM for this reason.
 
Is it a Maxtor? I bought a 20GB that was on sale at Circuit City a month ago and it was DOA. Got my money back the next day.
 
I guess I've got a bad drive. Was able to format it though after a very loooong time. However, there's only a few bad sectors. Is there anyway I could confine that and still use the good part? Thanks again to you all.
 
Perhaps yes. Like I said: IBM and Western Digital have utilities that allow you to remap bad sectors to good spare sectors that are just sitting there on your disk for that purpose, but you never told us what brand you are using.
 
Tell us what kind of harddrive it is. I had a very similar problem with my maxtor. I went to the websight downloaded powermax, ran the 90 sec test in dos and it failed. Maxtor has a great RMA service and the warranty is 3 years.
 
I still wouldn't deal w/ Maxtor. All they do is run the same kinda utility that they don't give you. Thank God their RMA policy is OK 🙂
Maxtor IS one of the ones that I've had trouble with. Couldn't even scan for bad sectors in DOS because when you encounter them, the system restarts!
 
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