Harddrive wont format.....

[flashsnaps]

Good afternoon - hope everyones having a good weekend,

Trying to format a sata harddrive with windows xp from startup, I go through, select to format the partition and accept the agreement & it starts to format, then I get.


setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged.

Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to the computer. If the disk is a scsi drive, make sure your scsi devices are properly terminated.

You must select a different partition for windows xp

Sounds like the harddrive maybe nackered, was wondering is there anything else I could try before going ahead & getting a new harddive?

Thanks

[FN-GM]

can you actually see the harddirve before you format it?

[localzuk]

Download the ultimate boot cd and run the relevant manufacturer's hard disk checking utility.

[flashsnaps]

Yes maxtor harddrive is found in the bios, & then a partition is found - when it askes you which partition you would like to use.

[FN-GM]

When you go into the Windows XP setup can you see it?

[flashsnaps]

yes it can see it, after selecting quick ntfs format - it begins to format - the bar comes up - it jumps to 20% then the fail error appears.

[FN-GM]

looks like its bust

[EduTech]

Hmm yh i agree sounds like it bust erm.. is there anyway u can like out it into another machine.. format it through windows.. then try again lol

sorry just a random idea just thought it might work/

regards
James

[flashsnaps]

Someone mentioned fdisk in the past, do you think running that off a floppy to fromat it, & then going ahead with xp again after that would do any good?

[bizzel]

Run it through a good manufacturer's drive testing utility and see if it's dead.

[markj_metcalfe]

Have you tried using the regular format option.

See this article by Microsoft regarding the differences between the format options. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302686

[MyDejaVu]

you should use quick format if the hard drive was already formatted with NTFS, if the setup finds the partition but you get an error, then the partition might be corrupted, I recommend to use fdisk to delete all the partitions on your disk, and then run your windows setup.

[flashsnaps]

Never used fdisk before it is it a free utility? google keeps bringing back sites which charge you.