Seagate Barracuda 160 GB IDE HD becomes corrupted. RMA?

[Muse]

Part number: ST3160023A-RK

Bought 08/13/2004 online at outpost.com, and it still has almost 4 years on the warranty. I've never lost a HD before, although I RMA'd one that was getting bad sectors 6 months after purchase. I've had over 10 HDD's. This was working perfectly, AFAIK and suddenly a couple of days ago Windows 2000 doesn't see the drive (Explorer). Disk Management shows it online but unformatted. So, I suppose the partition table became corrupted. Is this an automatic RMA? Can it be assumed that it's a hardware issue? Is it possible for me to retrieve the data somehow? Or is that an expensive and/or iffy proposition? Of the 3 HDD's in the system, this was the most expendable in terms of the data. In that I was extremely lucky. I used it mainly for backup and temporary work, and indeed I may not have lost anything of any importance in terms of data.

Thanks for any info.

Edit: I put it in a 2nd PC with a different cable and it's the same story.

 

[tiap]

Test it with Seagate's Seatools.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: tiap
Test it with Seagate's Seatools.

Yeah, I did. It couldn't do a file system check, though because it can't read the file system. So there was nothing I could do to restore it. I just called Seagate tech support and they guy told me to run the CD that came with the drive, which has Seatools. He said to do a full system scan. If it comes up with errors, I can contact them for an RMA. If it checks out OK, he thinks I can assume the drive's OK and that there was just some kind of aberration in my system that screwed up the file system. Is this correct or is it possible that there is something wrong with the drive that caused the corruption even if no bad sectors are found? I don't want it to happen again. Nothing else funny has been going on with the system.

 

[Muse]

So, having been counseled by Seagate support to do a full scan on the drive, I found no errors and went into Win2000 Disk Management and created two logical drives and formatted the first NTFS and then the second FAT32. After completing the format of the FAT32 drive, Windows flashes a message: Volume size too big !!! So, I delete the partition and create it again and am formatting it again in Disk Management. Isn't that screwy?

 

[tomt4535]

From Microsofts website:

Table 17.4 FAT32 Size Limits
Description Limit
Ma
Maximum file size 232 minus 1 bytes
Maximum volume size 32 GB (This is due to the Windows 2000 Format tool. The maximum volume size that Windows 98 can create is 127.53 GB).
Files per volume Approximately 222

Why do you need to use FAT32? Just use NTFS.

 

[Muse]

It happened again!

"Volume size is too big."

What can I do????

 

[Muse]

Tried to format the other partition in Windows Explorer and at the end it said it couldn't format it: "The disk in drive H cannot be formatted."

I'll be calling Seagate support again tomorrow and I suppose arranging an RMA.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: tomt4535
From Microsofts website:

Table 17.4 FAT32 Size Limits
Description Limit
Ma
Maximum file size 232 minus 1 bytes
Maximum volume size 32 GB (This is due to the Windows 2000 Format tool. The maximum volume size that Windows 98 can create is 127.53 GB).
Files per volume Approximately 222

Why do you need to use FAT32? Just use NTFS.

I use FAT32 because I'm multibooting: 2 Win2000 boot partitions, one Win98SE. I want one data partition visible to the Win98SE.

Edit: Looks like you are right. Windows couldn't format the partition FAT32 because it was over 32 GB. I opened Partition Magic 7.0 and it did it no problem.

 

[jdkick]

Win98... <shudder>

Anyway, yes, you can't create/format a FAT32 partition >32GB in W2k. As you found out PM will take care of it, but i'd still rather use NTFS. Not sure what system you're running, but since you're running a larger drive (>137GB) you may also want to verify that the BIOS for your board and os config support 48-bit LBA. Data corruption is a sign of this not being supported on a system.

 

[stevty2889]

You might want to run memtest, to make sure your memory is 100% stable, as that could be what caused your original hard drive corruption.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: jdkick
Win98... <shudder>

Anyway, yes, you can't create/format a FAT32 partition >32GB in W2k. As you found out PM will take care of it, but i'd still rather use NTFS. Not sure what system you're running, but since you're running a larger drive (>137GB) you may also want to verify that the BIOS for your board and os config support 48-bit LBA. Data corruption is a sign of this not being supported on a system.

How can I determine if I have 48 bit LBA support? My mainboard isMSI KT3 Ultra2

 

[Bozo Galora]

you have big drive support in bios

you really need SP4 for win2000 (SP3 can get you into trouble if you arent careful)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp4/default.mspx

The fact you HAD it running, then it went bad partition table, would indicate something hardware - like PSU prob or power surge, or overheat HDD or CPU.
Your formatting probs are just due to not being able to get back configured where you were. You need to figure WHY corruption occurred, if no bad sectors or file system errors in Seatools. BTW, I like latest seagate 2 floppy drive diagnose - can select between FAT32 and NTFS.

Edit: You ignored memtest advice above, which you shouldnt

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
you have big drive support in bios

you really need SP4 for win2000 (SP3 can get you into trouble if you arent careful)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp4/default.mspx

The fact you HAD it running, then it went bad partition table, would indicate something hardware - like PSU prob or power surge, or overheat HDD or CPU.
Your formatting probs are just due to not being able to get back configured where you were. You need to figure WHY corruption occurred, if no bad sectors or file system errors in Seatools. BTW, I like latest seagate 2 floppy drive diagnose - can select between FAT32 and NTFS.

Edit: You ignored memtest advice above, which you shouldnt

Well, I didn't mean to ignore the memtest advice. It's obviously good advice. I will run it. I have in the past, though I don't know if I've run it on this system. I will tomorrow morning. IIRC, it takes a while, and you run it from floppy disk.

What is the seagate 2 floppy drive diagnose? Something to do with Seatools?

I am running SP4.

Yes, I am concerned what trashed the HD. It's never happened to me before and I'd like to know why it happened. My CPU temperature has been very stable. Right now it's 32 C, and I doubt it's been over 35 all week. I don't believe the HD got very hot, either. It's pretty well ventilated in the case. Today, Everest reported for the HD: Seagate ST3160023A 26 °C (79 °F).

I'll run memtest. Any other ideas what could have caused the problem? I don't have the most stable power here, but I'm unaware of anything having happened this week in that regard. That doesn't mean there wasn't some kind of power aberration that caused this. It seemed to me, though, that it happened on bootup. After booting, I ran a program that depended on the existence of my I: drive, and it failed, and that's how I became aware of the problem. Thanks for the help!


Edit: I just downloaded the ISO version of memtest 3.2 to burn to CD, which I will run tomorrow.

 

[Bozo Galora]

http://download.seagate.com/seatools/registration.nsf/eula/desktop

Low level formatting (zero fill) sometimes fixes problematic sectors
In your case I would do it - takes a loooong time
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html

the fact you have 2 identical booting O/S with 2 dif file tables is also a prob - like with how you set up swap files, or the boot.ini, hal, ntdetect stuff

I would also say you pretty much have to dump win 98, install Win XP NTFS instead, then 2 Win2K NTFS.
just curious what drive leters are the w98 win 2K win2K?

You could also run a scan w/a real good AV like nod32 or kapersky

jest a few thoughts

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
http://download.seagate.com/seatools/registration.nsf/eula/desktop

Low level formatting (zero fill) sometimes fixes problematic sectors
In your case I would do it - takes a loooong time
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html

the fact you have 2 identical booting O/S with 2 dif file tables is also a prob - like with how you set up swap files, or the boot.ini, hal, ntdetect stuff

I would also say you pretty much have to dump win 98, install Win XP NTFS instead, then 2 Win2K NTFS.
just curious what drive leters are the w98 win 2K win2K?

You could also run a scan w/a real good AV like nod32 or kapersky

jest a few thoughts

I ran memtest, at least one pass and there were no reported errors.

I ran AV with NAV 2003 with updated virus definitions, nothing found. Nod32, kapersky? Are they freeware?

A Seagate guy said to use zero fill. Maybe I did, I don't know. I did the full scan of the drive, which took about an hour. Maybe that constitutes zero fill. He didn't seem to have access to much information, he was just trying to tell me what to do from memory, obviously. He said there were 4 funcitons, and I saw that when I went into Seatools on the CD (from ISO), and full scan seemed to be what he was talking about. That found no errors, or so it said.

I think the swap files are default, i.e. on the boot drives.

I have:

C: BootWIN98SE
D: Boot1Win2000
E: Boot2Win2000

My other HD partitions are:

F: BootDataNTFS
G: 200_NTFS
H: 160_FAT32
I: 160_NTFS

It's the H and I drives (the 160 GB) that crapped out on me. To install Win XP NTFS, I have to install WinXP, right?

One guy said that the fact that I couldn't delete the partition info on the drive using Win98's FDISK points to a serious problem.

 

[Muse]

I posted in newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (See thread here) and it was suggested that I lost the data due to lack of 48-bit LBA support on my machine. I believe my mainboard has the support (the BIOS), but Windows 2000 introduced 48-bit LBA support with SP3. I do have SP4 installed, however 48-bit LBA support is still not in effect until you create a special entry in the Windows registry: See this MS support page

It states:

? A computer with a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) installed.
? A computer with a hard disk that has a capacity of greater than 137 gigabytes (GB).
? You must enable the support in the Windows registry by adding or changing the EnableBigLba registry value to 1 in the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters

To enable 48-bit LBA large-disk support in the registry:
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters

3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:

Value name: EnableBigLba
Data type: REG_DWORD

Value data: 0x1 (Muse note: just make it 1, don't enter 0x1 !!!)

4. Quit Registry Editor.

 

[JEDIYoda]

One thing is for certain ...
Its not going to be RMA`d....lolol

 

[BlacKJesuS]

dont format i had the same problems...ran chkdsk and it fixed it

 

[corkyg]

I picked on up on clearance sale yesterday at BestBuy. It goes back today. Can't be formatted by anything including Seatools.

 

[corkyg]

Happy ending sequel. I took the Barracuda 160 back to BestBuy this afternoon - and it was an easy exchange - no questions asked. I came home with the 120 GB Barracuda, and in about 15 minutes had it running with all software to replace a DeskStar 80 GB. Love that TrueImage clone function!

I think there is something wrong with the 160s - it was on clearance sale - and they are stocking 120s and 200s on the shelf now.