MACHINE_EXCEPT_ERROR when I try to access my seagate HDD

[Eeezee]

I basically can't read or write to my 120GB Seagate UATA HDD. I had been using it as my boot drive for the last 10 months or so. I recently bought a new computer (upgraded to a 250GB SATA drive, also seagate). I wanted to use the 120 GB as a backup drive in order to get some use out of my IDE controller.

I deleted the partitions on the 120GB drive, but windows blue screens with MACHINE_EXCEPT_ERROR every time I try to access the drive. There's no important data on the drive, but it's annoying that Windows can't even format it. I tried to use the XP install CD to format the drive, and this worked fine. However, I still get the BSOD with the same error message if I try to write more than a few gigs to the drive.

I ran SeaTools, and the drive checked out fine except for errors with the NTFS partition. I've checked around, and Seagate will not replace my drive for this sort of problem (since I guess I'm supposed to be able to fix it). Since I was curious, my brand new SATA drive gets the SAME errors with SeaTools but I haven't had any problems writing or reading from the drive (I even did a full HDD image from this drive to another and it worked fine).

I tried running chkdsk. My SATA drive is split into 3 partitions (C:, D:, and E) and my IDE drive is 1 partition (F). Chkdsk says that all partitions on my SATA drive are fine, but I get the MACHINE_EXCEPT_ERROR if I try to run it with my IDE drive.

I've tried switching IDE cables to no avail. Why would SeaTools give me this error on a working SATA drive? And how do I fix my PATA drive? SeaTools reported both drives as working fine, but their partitions are screwed up despite the SATA drive working fine!

I have not tried a low-level format. I'm going to try it next, but I doubt that it's the solution I'm looking for. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix my IDE drive at least?

Edit1: Sorry, it was MACHINE_EXCEPT_ERROR, not HARDWARE_EXCEPT_ERROR. Fixed. I've also tried running chkdsk on reboot with -r, but this created the same error. Furthermore, I tried to run a chkdsk c: /f -r. This ran fine, but after the next reboot I got a MACHINE_EXCEPT_ERROR on bootup =(

 

[mchammer]

Low level format? People still use those? Go into disk management and delete all the partitions on the pata drive and make a new partition.

 

[wpshooter]

Have you tried repartitioning & reformatting this drive while booted to a Win98se boot diskette ? Then reformat when back in XP.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP/RECOVERY METHOD FOR YOUR SATA DRIVE IN CASE THE ABOVE CREATES PROBLEMS WITH YOUR XP INSTALL ON YOUR SATA BOOT DRIVE.

 

[Eeezee]

mchammer, windows gives the blue screen when I try to format any partitions on the PATA drive with disk management. If windows has any hand in the formatting process, there's a blue screen. I can create as many partitions as I want with disk management, but if I format the drive in windows I'm screwed. This includes the boot formatter with the WinXP SP2 CD.

wpshooter, no worries, I have everything backed up. I would never mess around with a drive before backing it up =) I can completely wipe the SATA drive if needed (which I may do)

An update: Tried a low-level format using seagate's discwizard and the drive seems to be working fine. I'm going to load it up and see if there's any read/write errors. SeaTools detected no errors on the PATA drive. I'm going to use this method on my new SATA drive after I finish testing the PATA drive. Thanks for the suggestions though

 

[Eeezee]

Nope, Discwizard didn't create the right partitions either. I managed to copy 20GB onto the PATA drive and then Windows crashed with the same error. Can't move the data at all. Could this be because I tried to transfer the data from the SATA drive with supposedly bad partitions? I'm going to try reformatting both in discwizard.

Does ANYONE PLEASE HAVE ANY IDEAS???

 

[Eeezee]

Is no one able to think of a solution to this problem? I feel like I've tried everything and Seatools still detects bad partitions on all of my drives