hard drive formatting problem

[kylecarter]

hi there, i've got quite an irritating little problem here.

i'm running a windows 2000 system, and i had 2 hard drives, a 12 gig as the
bootable drive, and a second Western Digital 40 gig drive which i used
mostly for gaming. recently, the 40gig started to really flake out. it would
have trouble spinning up, take forever to read files, etc.. so i decided to
completely format it. luckily for me, MS-DOS is still on the system from a
previous win98 install, so i tried to do the format through dos.

all would be well until roughly the 40% mark, when it would completely
freeze. this happened several times in a row.

now, there's no important data whatsoever on this disk, so i have no
interest in recovery, i'd really just like it to be usable again. i don't
really have the money to spare to buy another HD, and 12 gigs really isn't
cutting it.

is there anything at all you could suggest, or am i completely SOL?

thanks for any help you might be able to provide,
Kyle Carter

 

[Rod Speed]

hi there, i've got quite an irritating little problem here.

i'm running a windows 2000 system, and i had 2 hard drives, a 12 gig
as the bootable drive, and a second Western Digital 40 gig drive which
i used mostly for gaming. recently, the 40gig started to really flake out.
it would have trouble spinning up, take forever to read files, etc.. so i
decided to completely format it. luckily for me, MS-DOS is still on the
system from a previous win98 install, so i tried to do the format through dos.

all would be well until roughly the 40% mark, when it would
completely freeze. this happened several times in a row.

Just more evidence that its dying.

now, there's no important data whatsoever on this disk, so i have
no interest in recovery, i'd really just like it to be usable again.

Soorree, fresh out of magic wands to wave.

i don't really have the money to spare to buy
another HD, and 12 gigs really isn't cutting it.

is there anything at all you could suggest,

Buy a new drive. They dont cost much.

or am i completely SOL?

If its an IBM GXP drive, use of DFT might give you some more time.

 

[J. Clarke]

hi there, i've got quite an irritating little problem here.

i'm running a windows 2000 system, and i had 2 hard drives, a 12 gig as
the bootable drive, and a second Western Digital 40 gig drive which i used
mostly for gaming. recently, the 40gig started to really flake out. it
would have trouble spinning up, take forever to read files, etc.. so i
decided to completely format it. luckily for me, MS-DOS is still on the
system from a previous win98 install, so i tried to do the format through
dos.

all would be well until roughly the 40% mark, when it would completely
freeze. this happened several times in a row.

now, there's no important data whatsoever on this disk, so i have no
interest in recovery, i'd really just like it to be usable again. i don't
really have the money to spare to buy another HD, and 12 gigs really isn't
cutting it.

is there anything at all you could suggest, or am i completely SOL?

The only possibility that doesn't cost anything to fix is a loose cable or
jumper--make sure the power and signal cables are tight and the drive
select jumpers are well seated. Might be a good idea to blow any dust out
while you've got the machine open.

If that doesn't do it odds are that either the drive or the power supply is
on the way out.

 

[Bob Willard]

hi there, i've got quite an irritating little problem here.

i'm running a windows 2000 system, and i had 2 hard drives, a 12 gig as the
bootable drive, and a second Western Digital 40 gig drive which i used
mostly for gaming. recently, the 40gig started to really flake out. it would
have trouble spinning up, take forever to read files, etc.. so i decided to
completely format it. luckily for me, MS-DOS is still on the system from a
previous win98 install, so i tried to do the format through dos.

all would be well until roughly the 40% mark, when it would completely
freeze. this happened several times in a row.

now, there's no important data whatsoever on this disk, so i have no
interest in recovery, i'd really just like it to be usable again. i don't
really have the money to spare to buy another HD, and 12 gigs really isn't
cutting it.

is there anything at all you could suggest, or am i completely SOL?

thanks for any help you might be able to provide,
Kyle Carter

If $ is the problem, look for a used HD. Many small PC shops sell
"pulls", which are components pulled out of old PCs that users have
traded-in. Make a few phone calls to PC shops, and inquire.

Another source of used HDs is PC flea markets. Around here, it costs
~5$US for the entry fee.

And then, there's E-bay. Cheap, but not risk-free.

 

[kylecarter]

thanks for the replies.

i assumed it was pretty much a lost cause, i just wanted to see if there was
anything else i could do before i scrapped it.


thanks anyway, y'all


-Kyle

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

thanks for the replies.

i assumed it was pretty much a lost cause, i just wanted to see if there was
anything else i could do before i scrapped it.

Then run Bart's DISKTool on it, www.nu2.nu/utilities

Run the non-destructive test to see if there are bad sectors.
Do a full erase and repeat the nondestructive test to see if they
have gone, then run the destructive test to see if it holds itself well.