Bad format by Western Digital program?

[bevills1]

Has anybody else had bad format of new hard drive using Western Digital program that comes with new drives? I got 2 Western Digital 160GB new drives and used their program that comes with new drives to setup partitions and format them. One of the 2 drives worked with no problems at all, but the other failed misserably.

On the failed one I'd get 2 to 3 reboots after installing OS via Ghost image restoration and then get "Missing boot loader" or "Missing OS" error messages. At first I began to think bad CMOS battery or CPU and/or mobo problems. After 2 Ghost image restorations had same results, I decided to reinstall Windows from Windows CD which during install gave message that C drive was bad and needed reformatting. I reformatted C drive as well as all other partitions on the new drive, and I'm now over a dozen restarts with no more problems. This is the first time I've had this type problem with a new drive which must be fairly rare.

[CrayonEater]

I think that drive is bad. A bad format usually does not produce such inconsistent results; it will either work or it won't. I'd return that drive.

[bevills1]

Why did problems disappear after Windows format if the drive were bad? One difference I forgot to mention was the drive that worked with no apparent problems had the Western Digital setup program run once while the problematic drive had partitions removed and then setup again because I decided to change partition sizes and number of partitions. This factor may or may not have affected the outcome, and time will tell if that one drive is bad.

[lordsmurf]

Drives are mechanical. If you shake too much, they die. It may have been mishandled anytime before you bought it. From a dropped crate at a warehouse to a kid that kicked the box across the floor in the store.

If it's new, return it.

[Bjs]

Dont forget ... us mailmen(ex) kick the crap out of thing's ... if it broke ... it wasnt packed correctly .

For those installing new drive's , I suggest you all download "insert" ... a linux mini rescue distro packed with all these utilities ... there's a hard drive testing program on it that will thump any hd , and give you the result's ... good where platter's dont match in speed thoroughput's ... in this case , drive is defective .

Also , those hd test program's form their manufacturer's are crap ... they will say nothing wrong with drive , when there is ...

The manufacturer's "new install" tool is also capable of cloning drive to non manufacturer's drive ... work's when drive image , norton's ghost , and other's fail to clone old failing drive to a new drive .

[TBoneit]

Why did problems disappear after Windows format if the drive were bad? One difference I forgot to mention was the drive that worked with no apparent problems had the Western Digital setup program run once while the problematic drive had partitions removed and then setup again because I decided to change partition sizes and number of partitions. This factor may or may not have affected the outcome, and time will tell if that one drive is bad.

Quite possible that the Windows format did a full format and locked out any bad spots.

[bevills1]

It appears CrayonEater was correct about bad drive. The drive just lost everything in the extended DOS partition, and I've RMAd it to Western Digital. Maybe it was mishandled as suggested by lordsmurf and may have been kicked by Bjs or one of his co-workers!