Unable to format drive

edited December 2008 in Hardware
Folks - does anyone know why windows XP is saying it is unable to format a hard drive? I am adding an external 400gb drive and windows can see it, and I can set the drive letter ( L: ), but I can't use the drive because it needs to be formatted. When I try to format it, after windows goes through the whole lengthy process (hour long) of what appears to be formatting, it gives a short and sweet error message at the end "Windows was unable to complete the format". I guess i don't want to automatically assume the drive is bad, because of the hassle, and would rather try to troubleshoot the problem fist. I was wondering if anyone was familiar with this?
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Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Can you chkdsk it?
  • edited November 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Can you chkdsk it?

    Funny that you ask. I tried to run error-checking from the disk properties on it, but nothing happens. And it doesnt schedule chkdsk to run on the drive at startup either. I tried to run chkdsk from the cmd prompt, but I'm not sure how for the chkdsk to run on the L drive and not my C drive.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Try this:

    chkdsk L: /r
  • edited November 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Try this:

    chkdsk L: /r

    OK. It does not run and comes back with an message: "The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives."

    This is the first I've heard or RAW drives. ??
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    RAW simply means unformatted. It's to be expected, given the current situation.

    Would GParted be of any assistance here, Thrax? Only other thing I can think of is a low-level format somewhere in the BIOS. Those are both rather intense, though.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    He could always try formatting with GParted, yeah. LLFs don't exist any more, though.
  • edited November 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    He could always try formatting with GParted, yeah. LLFs don't exist any more, though.

    What is GParted? Is it shareware?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    GParted is the Gnome Partition Editor, and it's open-sourced, so it's free. You can make a live CD or bootable USB to run it when you restart your computer.
  • edited November 2008
    Snarkasm wrote:
    GParted is the Gnome Partition Editor, and it's open-sourced, so it's free. You can make a live CD or bootable USB to run it when you restart your computer.

    OK - I tried to download it and it is .bz2 file. I'm not familiar with that file format.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    You want the Gparted LIVE one.

    http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=271779

    Either an ISO or a zip :)
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Download and use WinRAR. That will extract the files for you, and you can put them on a CD or a bootable flash drive from there.

    Also what Jared said... I could have sworn I went to the Live section. Hrm.
  • edited November 2008
    Snarkasm wrote:
    Download and use WinRAR. That will extract the files for you, and you can put them on a CD or a bootable flash drive from there.

    Also what Jared said... I could have sworn I went to the Live section. Hrm.

    OK - I will download it, read up on it, run it and let you know what happens. I have to go to work now, so will pick up on this saturday morning. Thanks!
  • edited November 2008
    Snarkasm wrote:
    Download and use WinRAR. That will extract the files for you, and you can put them on a CD or a bootable flash drive from there.

    Also what Jared said... I could have sworn I went to the Live section. Hrm.

    Folks - can you give me some starting hints about how to use gparted. the zip file I downloaded has files that I am not clear how to proceed with it - or even how to create a bootable CD with it. help?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    jared wrote:
    You want the Gparted LIVE one.

    http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=271779

    Either an ISO or a zip :)

    Download the ISO file at the link Jared posted, then use a burning program like ImgBurn or some other CD burning option, tell it you want to burn an image, and then point it at that ISO file. Then reboot and boot via CD to run GParted.
  • edited November 2008
    Snarkasm wrote:
    Download the ISO file at the link Jared posted, then use a burning program like ImgBurn or some other CD burning option, tell it you want to burn an image, and then point it at that ISO file. Then reboot and boot via CD to run GParted.

    Update: got the bootable GParted CD running. The problem drive (L) is connected via firewire to the PC. At first, GParted sees the L drive, indicating it has no file system. So I attempt to format it using the NTFS option, and it begins and then stops and says the drive is not specified and to make sure you specify it. At that point, the L drive is no longer listed in GParted among the identified drives. Am I missing a step? What is the first thing I should do with GParted on this RAW drive?
  • edited November 2008
    Update: I am sort pulling my hair out on this one. Within GPArted, when I attempt to format the new unformatted drive or create a partition, Gparted begins the process, completes a few steps, and then stops with an error message "The device doesn't exist; did you specify it correctly?". Of course, the drive is there, and GPArted sees it, or else I wouldn't be able to select actions for it. But once I attempt to format or create a partition, GParted does something to it and after the "specify" error message the drive is no longer seen by GParted. When I reboot the machine, GParted will see the drive again, as an unformatted drive.

    Here are the on screen results from the last attempt to create a partition:

    >create empty partition
    - path: /dev/sda1
    - start: 63
    - end: 781417664
    - size: 781417602 (327.61GB)
    >set new partitiontype on /dev/sda1
    - new partitiontype: ntfs
    >create new ntfs filesystem
    - mkntfs -Q -vv -L "" /dev/sda1
    -- The device doesn't exist; did you specify it correctly?

    That's it. What am I doing wrong?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Can you scan it DFT or Seatools in DOS?
  • edited November 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Can you scan it DFT or Seatools in DOS?

    What is DFT? Seatools in DOS means run Seatools from a DOS booted disk? The problem is it is an external drive and I suppose running tools from a DOS diskette wont support IEEE 1394 drivers?
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Drive Fitness Test. http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

    Download it, run it, and see if your drive passes the test.

    Sounds like it might be failing :(
  • edited November 2008
    jared wrote:
    Drive Fitness Test. http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

    Download it, run it, and see if your drive passes the test.

    Sounds like it might be failing :(

    Unfortunately, DFT "Does not support external USB or Firewire attached drives." So that shoots that idea out the window. There must be some tool that can scan and diagnose an externally attached drive, no?
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited November 2008
    Could it be a problem with the firewire?

    I know that USB drives are just IDE drives with a IDE-USB interface in a box. You can open them up unplug the drive and plug it straight into your IDE on your PC. I assume the same is true with Firewire but I guess you will void any warrentee if you open the unit. I dont suppose you have any other firewire devices laying around to test with?
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited November 2008
    I personally wouldn't trust Seatools. It just told my son BOTH his drives were about to fail so he bought two new drives. After installing them Seatools says they are about to fail!!!!!
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Seatools is an exceptionally accurate program, but like any DOS application it does suffer from incompatibilities with certain hard drive controllers because DOS is old and stupid.
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited November 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Seatools is an exceptionally accurate program, but like any DOS application it does suffer from incompatibilities with certain hard drive controllers because DOS is old and stupid.

    Doesn't that mean it's exceptionally accurate sometimes?
    All I know is my son bought two new drives for nothing and according to Seatools they have both failed.
  • edited November 2008
    bothered wrote:
    Doesn't that mean it's exceptionally accurate sometimes?
    All I know is my son bought two new drives for nothing and according to Seatools they have both failed.

    I took apart a PC and installed this drive into it so I am not attempting to test or format over the firewire link. Running DFT from a floppy. DFT seems to be finicky that this is not a Hitachi drive. If comes back with a Disposition code = 0x71. I searched the web and it means "The selected drive is not ready for operation. Check cabling and HDD connectors." Well, the cabling seems fine, given that the drive was properly identified by DFT.

    I then tried to run Seatools from a CD and it doesnt see the drive. Maybe the jumber settings are wrong? I will play with that.

    I think what might be an issue is this PC is using an ATA RAID controller card to attach to the drive, since the mother board on this PC does not support 48bit LBA. The PC runs fine in this configuration with the system drive being a 250gb drive connected to the RAID controller. (there is no RAID of drives, just one drive).
  • edited November 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Seatools is an exceptionally accurate program, but like any DOS application it does suffer from incompatibilities with certain hard drive controllers because DOS is old and stupid.

    Thrax - if you take a look at my last post, do you think my PC Card drive controller which is also a RAID controller might be preventing me from running DFT? As a test, I used a known working hard drive connected to the RAID controller and booted from the DFT floppy and still ran into the 0x71 error message. So that means, it may not be a hard drive issue. Which is good news. I simply dont have a PC with a motherboard that supports 48bit LBA. I was shopping on ebay to look for a new PCI card based disk controller that is not specifically a RAID controller (in other words something simpler). This is what I found - do you think it may help?

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=120332123214

    Thanks.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    It's entirely possible that your controller is gumming up the works. Controllers, especially old ones, were/are a bit wonky. It's probably why no scanning application will work, since little else except the BIOS can read controller-based cards usually.

    A new controller may help, but obviously I cannot guarantee that.
  • edited November 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    It's entirely possible that your controller is gumming up the works. Controllers, especially old ones, were/are a bit wonky. It's probably why no scanning application will work, since little else except the BIOS can read controller-based cards usually.

    A new controller may help, but obviously I cannot guarantee that.

    Thanks. The controller card that is in there isnt very old, about 2 years, but it has RAID functions on it and I suspicious that may be gumming things up. So I was contemplating a simple controller card. Did you take a look at the link I sent you? What do you think?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Aye, I looked at the link, but I can't really guarantee anything.

    I remain skeptical that the card is the problem when the drive is still having issues being connected via Firewire. The system shouldn't freak out, it should simply limit the maximum visible size to 127GB and move on with its life.
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