Please Help - Cannot Format Hard Drive

[fire2havoc]

I am trying to format a WD 1TB drive (model WD10EADS) and for some reason cannot get it to format. I did a full format with Windows Disk Management and it would get to 99% and give the following message: "The format did not complete successfully."

After this unsuccessful format, the drive shows up in My Computer but Windows asks me if I want to format it when I try to access it.

I tried using the Western Digital Lifeguard Tools utility to format it (quick format) and it says that it is successful but when I double-click on the hard drive, windows say "The disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" It just shows the hard disk as file system RAW with 0 bytes.

Could it be that my Windows Disk Management kills the hard drive and makes it impossible for other programs to format it? What could be the problem? I need to solve this asap and now I'm getting worried... Please help!

 

[cmdrdredd]

I had that problem with a seagate drive, nothing would work. so i got an RMA and the new drive works fine. I don't have any idea why that happened, first time I ever saw it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Using the WD data lifegaurd tools, do a surface scan, then do a "write zeros", and then do another full surface scan. Then go into windows disk management, create a partition, and do an NTFS full format. If it fails to format, you might need to RMA the drive.

 

[fire2havoc]

This is the second drive I received. I had the same problem with my first 1TB drive and RMAed it because it gave me bad sector errors. It's hard for me to believe that I got 2 bad drives in a row.

I'd gladly do a full surface scan in Lifeguard Tools but that takes 400 hours...

 

[techmanc]

How well was the drive packed when it was shipped to you?

 

[fire2havoc]

Originally posted by: techmanc
How well was the drive packed when it was shipped to you?

Shipped from ZipZoomFly. Rather well packaged. Inside a styrofoam case in a larger box filled with peanuts. Not much room to move around.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Hrm, it could be that ZZF got a bad batch from the distributor/mfgr. It might be that you're getting drives from that bad bunch that they have on hand. RMA through WD and you'll be good.

 

[techmanc]

Yes I asked because Newegg which I generally love packed some seagate 1.5tb drives poorly. That said I would run WD low lvl format utility to zero out the beginning or the drive and retry a format. Also it could be a problem with the SATA port/cable your using.

 

[fire2havoc]

Originally posted by: techmanc
Yes I asked because Newegg which I generally love packed some seagate 1.5tb drives poorly. That said I would run WD low lvl format utility to zero out the beginning or the drive and retry a format. Also it could be a problem with the SATA port/cable your using.

Could it be the SATA cable/port even if I had another drive connected there recently which was working fine?

 

[techmanc]

Originally posted by: fire2havoc

Originally posted by: techmanc
Yes I asked because Newegg which I generally love packed some seagate 1.5tb drives poorly. That said I would run WD low lvl format utility to zero out the beginning or the drive and retry a format. Also it could be a problem with the SATA port/cable your using.

Could it be the SATA cable/port even if I had another drive connected there recently which was working fine?

Not if connected properly. My assumption was new drive new port and cable.

 

[techmanc]

Do a quick low lvl zeroing of the hard drive using using WD tools. That should wipe out mbr and any previous formatting info and then try to reformat drive.