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  • harddisk formatting problems...

    A friend of mine has problems with formatting his harddrive. He wants 1 big partition (of 80GB), the harddisk is a WDC, the computer is made by Dell.

    His computer crashed, and formatting the drive yielded strange noises (clicking) at around 50%, so we had it replaced (Dell sent us a new disk; I installed it). Yesterday, he tried to format the new drive (it came in a sealed packing), and XP mentions it cannot format the disk possibly because of an error on the disk (at about 95%).

    Could he be that unlucky ? Or is there something else causing this (XP problems with 80 GB partition ? problem with controller ?) ?

    Thanks!


    Jörg
    Last edited by VJ; 17 December 2002, 01:11.
    pixar
    Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

  • #2
    Sounds dodgy to me. Try it with pqmagic but it sounds like the drive is damaged.
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    • #3
      pqmagic, is that the same as Partition Magic ?
      (unfortunutaly, I don't have Partition Magic... If it is not the same, could you provide a link ?)

      The fact that it is the second drive with which it occured, is just bad luck ...?


      Jörg
      pixar
      Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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      • #4
        Probably unlucky, but it may be a dodgy IDE controller.

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        • #5
          So it would be best to send the computer as a whole back... (instead of just the disk) ?
          The computer is still covered by warranty (IIRC until the third week of January).


          Jörg
          pixar
          Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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          • #6
            Try splitting it into 2 40Gig partitions and formatting them. This will nail down a disk or controller issue.

            Also - you CAN quick format an 80 gig drive - that might be worth a go and then run a chkdisk on it.
            It's easy to die in the past. Staying alive is much more difficult!

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            • #7
              just checking but are you using NTFS?
              max fat32 partition size you can make with xp is 32GB!

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              • #8
                I would try to format the disk with another computer to make sure, that the HD is OK.

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                • #9
                  Ok, thanks for all the suggestions ! The friend is a computer illiterate, so I'll have to go there myself....

                  Dell stated that they will provide support, if we test the drive with a different cable, scan the disk with test software and perform a test upon boot (ctrl-alt-d). They apparently need the results of those tests...


                  Jörg
                  pixar
                  Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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                  • #10
                    those tests include a surface scan, and can take hours.
                    I have already had probs with Dell stuff, and its pretty long.
                    You virtually have to diagnose the problem before contacting them.

                    They are quick tho...
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                    • #11
                      Well, apparently, the Dell software gave an error. He called them, and they will pick up the computer this week. According to their predictions, he'd have it back before Christmas...


                      Jörg
                      pixar
                      Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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