Harddrive problem?

[taker36904]

I use to use a 80gb harddrive,so i took out an 30gb harddrive that was in an old pc to use as the os drive and the 80gb drive as a external backup drive.Recently i bought another 80gb harddrive to use as the new os and started using the 30gb as the backup.I havent use the old 80gb in a while but now i want to use it as the backup.

So in other words,
I bought the new 80gb drive about 2 months ago(it works perfect)to use the OS on,now i want to use bout the old 30gb and 80gb as the backups,i got the 30gb drive working without any problems,but i cant for some reason format the old 80gb drive with windows or norton partionmagic.Is the drive going bad on me?If it aint then is there a program whick i can format it?

Thanks in advance.

[Nelson37]

Try deleting the partition in Drive Manager.

What error msg do you get when attempting the Format? Something about it being an OS drive?

Hook it up as the primary, and ONLY, hard drive in the system. Boot the XP install disk. Delete the partition. Hook up original OS drive, install 80gb as backup drive. Format.

Describe also cable connections. This can cause issues when two different drives are on the same cable. ALWAYS avoid this if possible, unless the drives are exactly identical.

[taker36904]

The drive is hooked up as external as i stated above and the error that is is giving me says........
" windows can not format drive ".Partition magic says the same thing.

[Nelson37]

Hook it up internally and do what I advised. Some external connections ( USB, Firewire, SCSI, IDE?) will not allow a format. Or the partition could be screwed.

Avoid partition magic. If you need what it does, you need to delete and re-create the partitions with the OS software. These type progs are for emergency use only, get the data off and then do it the right way. Save yourself a lot of grief.

[taker36904]

Hey Nelson37,i tried what you said about hooking it up internaly,i think i have figured out why i can get it formated.When i turn the pc on and where it shows the info sreen or whatever it is called,the smart status of the drive says failed,so in other words,the drive is failing or already dead.
P.S.
I only had this drive for about 2 years,remember this is the old 80gb drive,not the new 80gb.Just to say im using the new 80gb drive as we speak,or saying how im writing this.

Ok,a little news..........
Im am using the 80gb drive as the OS as we speak so im happy,and im using the 30gb drive as a backup drive,i guess i just have to a new 80gb drive and use it as a new backup drive when i get some money.....somehow.

Thanks for the help anyway,but i geuss we cant do nothing esle for the drive,unless you have some secrets up your sleave.
Again thank you for the help and have a nice day or night.

[Nelson37]

If SMART says it is failed, that's pretty much it. There are some things you could try if there was valuable data on it, but they're iffy.

Interesting it did not report the smart status through the external enclosure. What type of connection is it using?

[taker36904]

If you mean how it is plug in,its usb 2.0.I cant find the pic to show you but its from adstech.com.Its a pretty good peice of hardware so you can take a internal harddrive and make it external.The cables inside are basically a power plug and a ata/ide cable to transfer.The price of this model cost me about 50 bucks,but well worth it.It is also is hot plugable so i cant take it on the run without restarting the pc.Well take that back...i found a pic close to the model or kit that i have....
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/ADS-Technologies-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-Kit-USBX833EF/sem...oductDetail.do

I hope this helps you out....Peace for now.

[Scorpion King]

i geuss we cant do nothing esle for the drive,unless you have some secrets up your sleave.

If its dead then I guess it's dead.... Data on it is lost and the drive, for all practical purposes, is junk.

I was replacing a junk HDD for a friend a few years back and he decided the old drive had some important data on it that he needed off it. I couldn't get the drive to work so I unhooked it from all the cables..... grabbed it in the palm of my hand.... and SLAMMED it hard against the top of his work table. He thought I had lost my mind I hooked it back up and got most of his data off it. A few more WACKS against the table and it worked long enough to get all the files off it. I then unhooked it and dropped it in the trash can. I guess it really was junk then..

Just thinking here....Never mind.

Good luck.

[taker36904]

Im not really worried about data on the drive as because the drive has nothing on it,i just would like to use it as a backup drive if i can fix it,thats all.If i cant fix it,i can always just get a new one ,if thats the last and only thing i can do.

[SingSing]

I don't think SMART status work properly as an external drive. Hook it up as internal drive, and see can you read it? If not, can you format it ? before you toss it.

To get the most from your money, you should try to retain the largest HD in your PC.

[Scorpion King]

More on the serious side ok.

Open up the computer, unhook all your drives. PIN the 80 as "SINGLE", hook it on the end of the cable. Set the BIOS to boot to CD, insert the XP CD-ROM. Boot to XP Install on CD-ROM. See if XP install will find the drive then try and partition and format it. If all goes well then cancel the XP install. If XP can't do anything with the drive... and you have everything setup properly, then either trash the drive as junk or beat it against the destop like I did . If it's junk then there isn't much you can do.

You could also boot to Floppy disk if you have an old Win98 setup boot floppy that includes FDISK. Boot to floppy, run FDISK from the command prompt and try to delete the partition. Bad part about his idea is you can't create a new NTFS partition. You would still need to get it working under XP, somehow.

I would also check the BIOS Setup Utility and see if the drive is listed and reporting properly. Usually a bad drive won't even list, but sometimes they will anyway.

Hook it up, turn on the computer and listen to the drive. Is it spinning up? Is it clicking? Or not....

Inspect the pins. Is there any of them bent over?

Good luck.

[taker36904]

I just tried the windows cd and that didnt even work,but the cd did list the drive.BIOS does list the drive too,my pins(cables) are fine,there new,and the drive is spinning but not making a clicking noise.And the Win98 solution cant work because i dont have one.Can i even run FDISK with winXP?If so,how do i go about that?

[Scorpion King]

I just tried the windows cd and that didnt even work,

explain please...

[free is better]

go online to a website named boot & nuke. it is a linux based overwrite program. download the image and burn to a cd. put the cd in and reboot with the drive in question hooked up. you can leave the good drive with the os hooked up as the program boots into the linux kernel. select manual wipe and select the drive you wish to wipe by it manufacturer model # and size (note this before you start). if the drive in question is accessable in any way the program will wipe all contents from the drive through multiple overwrites. i redo my computers every couple of months and i want to make sure that no drivers are left over to cause conflicts. this also makes sure that there is no retrievable information on a drive that you wish to discard.

[Nelson37]

If SMART says it has failed, and there is no valuable data on it, you are wasting your time. It is a paperweight. Never heard of a false positive from SMART.

Chuck it and get a newer, bigger, faster, SATA drive.

[Skith]

If SMART says it has failed, and there is no valuable data on it, you are wasting your time. It is a paperweight. Never heard of a false positive from SMART.

Chuck it and get a newer, bigger, faster, SATA drive.

SATA would only be useful if he has a SATA connection on his motherboard or purchased a PCI SATA controller card.

I would recommend getting something larger than 80GB though. 250-320GB seems to be the sweet spot in terms of cost per GB.