FORMAT PROBLEMS, PLZ HELP - Western Digital 160GB Caviar

[ryaninhb]

Despite an inclination to label even myself a computing hardware moron, I have managed to render 2 Western Digital 160GB's totally unaccessible. I now need some advice from the guru's...

I formatted this drive and the one that crashed before it in command prompt DOS mode, after FDISKing it using a Win98 Boot Disk (I used command prompt within XP safe mode command prompt because it allowed me to FORMAT D: /FS:NTFS). Everything went fine, I started backing DVD's up on it... and after about a month, it simply says D: is not accessible (on 2 drives now, same situation). Might there be other software or hardware issues causing the drives to fail? Should I have formatted differently? Or do I simply have bad luck with hard drives lately? I have an IBM 120GB that has never failed me in the many years that I have used it... but I tried an IBM 180GB without success (error at end of format), so I decided to go for a WD. Thanks in advance for your suggestions... I can't afford to keep losing data as these damned things crash on me.

Ryan

 

[ryaninhb]

Help! Should I reformat it another way? Can a crashed drive ever be trusted again?

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: ryaninhb
Help! Should I reformat it another way? Can a crashed drive ever be trusted again?

I would RMA that drive while you still can.

 

[ryaninhb]

Good point, will do. Is there any way that I could be screwing up the format and causing the failure? By using DOS FORMAT with /FS:NTFS, it is stable and avoids windows issues, etc. But then again, they are failing on me within 30 days of initial format...

Any suggestions?

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: ryaninhb
Good point, will do. Is there any way that I could be screwing up the format and causing the failure? By using DOS FORMAT with /FS:NTFS, it is stable and avoids windows issues, etc. But then again, they are failing on me within 30 days of initial format...

Any suggestions?

I always format my drives using the Windows XP or 2000 CD. All you do is set your BIOS to boot from CD, put it in the drive and reboot. It gives you the option during the windows install. You could try that, but by the sounds of it your hard drive is no good.

<EDIT: To do it, you have to delete all the partitions, then create a new partition, then it should automatically format for you.>

 

[owensdj]

ryaninhb, I think you should never use the DOS FORMAT to create NTFS partitions for Windows 2000/XP. In fact, I didn't even know the Win98 FORMAT even supported creating NTFS. You should start with a blank drive from the factory and then use the Windows 2000/XP install to create any partitions you need when you install the operating system. If you need to create, format, or delete partitions other than the operating system's boot or system partition(usually they're the same), you can do everything from 2000/XP's Disk Management software. You don't need to use a Win98 boot disk to do it.

I still sometimes use a Win98 boot disk to delete partitions before doing a fresh install of 2000/XP, but that's about it.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: owensdj
ryaninhb, I think you should never use the DOS FORMAT to create NTFS partitions for Windows 2000/XP. In fact, I didn't even know the Win98 FORMAT even supported creating NTFS. You should start with a blank drive from the factory and then use the Windows 2000/XP install to create any partitions you need when you install the operating system. If you need to create, format, or delete partitions other than the operating system's boot or system partition(usually they're the same), you can do everything from 2000/XP's Disk Management software. You don't need to use a Win98 boot disk to do it.

I still sometimes use a Win98 boot disk to delete partitions before doing a fresh install of 2000/XP, but that's about it.

You can actually delete partitions during the Windows XP install.

 

[AIWGuru]

Since it sounds like you're using it as a second hard drive I would have just used disc management to manage the disc. There's absolutely no need to do what you have been doing.
I blow away all tables on the drive, create one large partition, format it ntfs, run a surface scan and make sure SMART is enabled on the drive.