Formatting Troubles

[Desmock]

Hi there everyone, this is my first time here and I'm having troubles I was hoping someone could help me with. Just recently my VERY good friend sent me a new motherboard and cpu and a hard drive. Well... I got everything working for the most part, except for the hard drive, and I had to format it, which I didn't want to at all in the first place. But now I've ran into a problem.

My problem is that after I formatted it, now it's raw data and every time I try to format it into a certain file type... like FAT, FAT32, or NTFS... it ALWAYS says the format was unsucessful. Now I'm kind of worried I broke it or something, which I don't want to happn, because it's a perfectly good 30GB hard drive.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong and what might the solution be?

Thank you,

Desmock

[4.6POWER]

what are you using to format it? If it's hooked up to your PC... you can just open a dos window and format it, but thats NTFS only. I would recommend using partition magic if you can get your hands on a copy.

[Desmock]

I've tried formating it via DOS, Explorer, and the Computer Management option in XP. All of these failed to sucessfully format the hard drive.

But I will take your advice and try to get a copy of Partition Magic.

[Ruantic]

I doubt you've caused any kind of permanent damage, a simple partition and format should clear anything up. One thing that may be helpfull to you is to get the drive manufacturers setup software. If you tell me the make/model of your hard drive It would help. Would also be helpfull to know what OS your use, which file system do you want on hte drive, and the specific error your getting....

[Ruantic]

If you want, download a win98 bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com boot from the floppy, Use Fdisk to remove and repartition the drive, then format from the same command prompt.

If your not familiar with DOS just let me know and I can walk you through it in a more detailed manner....

[Kabooka]

Another possibility is that someone loaded linux I had a hd that wouldn't partition or format until I used delpart (windows utility) then fdisk then format

[Desmock]

My hard drive is a Maxtor 5 3073H6 SCSI Disk Device. I'm running Windows XP Pro, I want NTFS on it, and the error I keep getting is "Windows was uncessful in formatting hard drive". Of course the error changes lettering from time to time, depending if I use DOS, Explorer, or Computer Management... but it's basically the same all around. It's a 30GB hard drive, if I didn't say that already.

[Synthohol]

in disk management, it wont let you remove the current partition?? weird!.
fdisk will allow you to remove the "non dos" partiton like mentioned above.
can you see any data on the drive at all?

[notoriousformula]

Originally posted by Synthohol


damnit,, 1st drake and now you,,

[Synthohol]

Originally posted by notoriousformula
damnit,, 1st drake and now you,,
um, huh?:confused:

[Desmock]

Well that's the thing... it doesn't have a partition but it wont let me format one on there. Well... no... scratch that, I think it might have worked now. For some dang reason it wouldn't let me create a primary partition with the NTFS format. Yet it lets me (I THINK) create a logical partition on a FAT32 format... wierd. I'm confused and stumped here. (This was all done on Partition Magic 8.0)

[Synthohol]

what i should try to find, i think sptw posted a command line command that totally restores a drive to fresh out of the box state.
something about writing 0's to the drive too. ill take a peek:)


hey, did you try fdisk /MBR earlier? it formats the master boot record which keeps the info as the file system on the drive.

found it! Originally posted by sptw
It's not necessary to do that.Anyway it takes a long time to fill the entire disk with zeros.
Unfortunately, maxtor'tools sucks for this.Here is another way to do that.I use to use this little command line.It uses assembler language and is so easy.Do that:

- Make a startup(pay attention, startup diskette, not boot diskette) diskette using win98 or Win 98SE(prefer this last).
- Boot with this diskette.As soon as you get the a:>, type debug and hit enter.
- Type exactly in this way on the blink cursor:
F200 L200 0 (enter)
a100 (enter)
mov ax,301 (enter)
mov bx,200 (enter)
mov cx,1 (enter)
mov dx,80 (enter)
int 13 (enter)
int 3 (enter)
(enter again)
g=100
q
- You're done.Now you have a new disk.Do what you want now.

[notoriousformula]

Originally posted by Synthohol
um, huh?:confused:

dude your avatar.. get somethin nice,, you and drake got some scary pics..

[Drake]

Boo ;)

[sptw]

Hi desmock,

Follow those lines that Synthohol wrote in his last post, and i'm sure you're going to fix your problem.Remember to disconnect the others Hds only for sure that you are going to erase the MBR in the SCSI hard disc, not in the others.Those line: mov dx,80 means 0=disc1, 1=disc2, 2=disc3...... but don't change it.leave it in this way: mov dx,80.It's better to disconnect the others Hard discs instead.
Those line comands erase totally the MBR, it fills the first 512-byte sector buffer with zeros.
There's a .com program (only 2k) named ZAP63.zip (http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm) that can do the same thing, but it only fill the first 63 sectors with zeros.It erases the MBR too, but i suggest you to use those assembler line command.In case you decide to this ZAP63.zip, remember that you still need the startup diskette, because it need the debug command.

i hope this help you.

[Desmock]

Well I do appreciate all this help... and I'll be sure to give it a try... once I learn more about computers then my already intermediate knowledge. I have a huge fear of disconnecting my hard drives right now, seeing as I had a huge problem with them before this, had to format them all and start fresh and anew.

Ya see, my new motherboard is a RAID board... and for me this is TOTALLY new and scary, seeing as I'm working with 4 IDE slots instead of 2. Each hard drive is connected to an IDE slot, seeing as for some reason none of them will willingly go slave and will only go primary.

So... I fear that if I remove the hard drives, even if to do a fresh format on one of them... it might screw up the boot.ini file or something like that and then I won't be able to start up XP anymore, and ALL my files are on it and if I lose it... well... I'm sure at least ONE of you has had that problem before LOL.

Heck... I'd be using a 20GB hard drive I have right now, if it hadn't gone corrupt with all sorts of VERY PRECIOUS files on it that I can't format off even if I desperately need the hard drive. So I'm waiting until I get enough money to try and send it to one of those companies that restores data from corrputed and damaged hard drives.

[Pistol]

Is this the same 45 gig HD?didnt that have 4 partitions on it?

[Desmock]

LOL it's only 30GB and it has 1 partition now.

[sptw]

Hi again Desmock,

and for me this is TOTALLY new and scary......So... I fear that if I remove the hard drives, even if to do a fresh format on one of them... it might screw up the boot.ini file or something like that and then I won't be able to start up XP anymore, and ALL my files are on it and if I lose it...

No problems.I understand your feelings.If all this things are new for you, agree, it's better not to mess on it.
Well...you didn't tell us which mobo do you have and how the HDs are connected to this, but i could see one thing in your setup that maybe can help you.Look, Windows see Raid on board controller as SCSI device, and you told us that you have Hds connected to this, and your SCSI HD is connected to the SCSI card.Are you sure that your SCSI card is not conflicting with the Raid on board controller.
Try to move the SCSI Card Controller to the other slot.Maybe it can help.

[Desmock]

Well I suppose I could try moving the hard drive into another slot controller, seeing as 2 are RAID and 2 are normal IDE.

[sptw]

Desmock, before do it, can you tell me what mobo do you have? and what brand and model is your SCSI card? and for last how much HDs do you have, model too, and how they are connected to the mobo?

Well I suppose I could try moving the hard drive into another slot controller, seeing as 2 are RAID and 2 are normal IDE.

Don't do that, please.This is not what i'm trying to say.

[amdrules770]

I doubt he has anything scsi. XP just calls ATA hard drives scsi drives for some odd reason.

[Desmock]

LOL you kep talking as if I have a PCI card or something that I hook my hard drive to. Which I don't... anyways, my mobo is an Abit K7TA-RAID. I have no idea how to find out the SCSI thing. And I have 3 hard drives, one is an IBM DJNA 351520 and the other is a Quantum Fireball SE2 SCSI Disk Device. You already know what the one I'm having troubles with is. They're all connected via the IDE/RAID ports though.

[Desmock]

Well... it seems to have formated... but now anything I install on it wont work at all... *sighs* Go figure right? This is the error I get for most of the programs I try to run off of it:

The procedure entry point GetDlgItam could not be located in the dynamic link library USER32.dll.

[Snowman]

OK, A little confusing about your setup. This is what I would do.

Backup all your files you want to save. Download MaxBlast 3 from maxtor

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/maxblast3.htm

connect the Maxtor to IDE 1 make shour the jumper is set to master

Run the maxblast from the floppy

hope this helps

[Desmock]

Snow... your avatar freaks me out man LOL. Anyways... shouldn't XP already come with this Maxblast? I mean... I'll try it and everything... I just think it's a little odd that XP doesn't support it.

On a lighter note, the hard drive CAN hold things, because it IS formatted... I just for some reason, cannot install programs onto it. Like... I can run music files, pictures and other misc things on it without any problems (So far).

[Snowman]

Originally posted by Desmock
Snow... your avatar freaks me out man LOL. (So far).

Its MR Freeze from batman LOL

Anyway check out maxblast its made just for maxtor hard drives

The first thing is to run disk wipe its in the download after that run set up your hard drive. Then install XP :)

[Desmock]

Why would I want to install a 2nd copy of XP though?

[sptw]

Hi Desmock,

I have to agree with amdrules770, you don't have any SCSI drives.Probably Windows XP are seeing it as a SCSI drive because you or someone else installed a driver from Via named "IDE MiniPort Driver".It used to be in the old KT133's time.
My advise for you is the same as Snowman: "Backup all your files you want to save" and do a fresh install of Windows XP.

[Desmock]

Well... big problems arise when stupid people do stupid things =P. Here's the thing, I tried moving the hard drives around, putting my boot hard drive on IDE1 instead of ATA100RAID, and I set my hard drive that wont format worth a damn as a slave and connected that to my boot hard drive.

I then connected my DVD ROM from IDE1 to IDE2 and connected my 3rd hard drive to the ATA100RAID. So... when I go to boot up, it looks alright in the begining, but once it starts up I keep getting error signs, hell if I can remember, all I know is that chkdsk couldn't fix it, and then after I shut down to do something and turned it back on, it wouldn't boot. Corrupted, great huh?

LOL So now I can't even fresh install anymore... seems not only my hard drives want to screw up. But my DVD ROM took pleasure in stop spinning long enough to burn and slaughter my XP Pro disc. It also did the same to my 98SE disc before I realized my DVD ROM likes to eat discs.

So now I'm running on my 30 days of life for XP Home version, since I refuse to register and sodimize my privacy to a multi million dollar company. So hopefully I can find a solution to all of my problems real soon here... seeing as if I don't, then it's hell for me.

I'm probably just gonna format my 15GB hard drive, the one I USED to boot from and install 98SE from the hard drive onto it, that way I'll at least have something to go off of until I can get a CD Burner or something. Need to get me an ISO and burn it onto a disc so I can install XP Pro cracked version again, this time hopefully with SP1.

Sorry for the rambling... just needed to vent and let somenoe know LOL.