Problem to format a Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chewee
  • Start date Start date
C

Chewee

Hi All!
I've got a problem with my PC.
Under Windows XP Pro, Motherboard Asus A7B266, Hard Drive Maxtor 80Go,
Primary IDE, Slave.
The hard drive is well seen by the BIOS, XP is abble to create partition on
it but when I try to format a partition (in NTFS or FAT32), it's impossible.
It stay stuck at 0%
I tried whith the FDISK at the begining of XP installation, and the problem
is here too, formatting stuck at 0%.
Does somebody have an idea ?

Thanks for your help and sorry for my poor english, I'm french...
 
Chewee said:
Hi All!
I've got a problem with my PC.
Under Windows XP Pro, Motherboard Asus A7B266, Hard Drive Maxtor 80Go,
Primary IDE, Slave.
The hard drive is well seen by the BIOS, XP is abble to create
partition on it but when I try to format a partition (in NTFS or
FAT32), it's impossible. It stay stuck at 0%
I tried whith the FDISK at the begining of XP installation, and the
problem is here too, formatting stuck at 0%.
Does somebody have an idea ?

Thanks for your help and sorry for my poor english, I'm french...
Click to expand...

Salut!
When you start instantly from the XP Pro CD, go into the Recovery Console
(touche "R").

With the Diskpart command you create a partition and format it (either FAT32
or NTFS)
Does this also happen in this mode?

I do not understand this:
"I tried whith the FDISK at the begining of XP installation,..."
What role does FDISK play in this? Please, forget FDISK...

--
M.f.G.
Michael Kimmer

"Ein Tag an dem Du nicht lächelst ist ein verlorener Tag"
"Eine Nacht in der Du nicht schläfst ist eine verschlafene Nacht"
 
Michael said:
Salut!
When you start instantly from the XP Pro CD, go into the Recovery
Console (touche "R").
Click to expand...

That's what I mean when I speak about the FDISK of the XP Installation...
With the Diskpart command you create a partition and format it
(either FAT32 or NTFS)
Does this also happen in this mode?
Click to expand...

Yes, the problem is identical.
 
Chewee said:
That's what I mean when I speak about the FDISK of the XP
Installation...


Yes, the problem is identical.
Click to expand...

Problaby a time issue

How large (in Gigabytes) is the partition to be formatted?
From my own experience it may take quite some time when the indicator leaves
the 0% starting position.

The format process using both format from the Recovery Console as well as
the format process upon installing XP takes incredibly long.
That's why I create and format my installation partition with PartitionMagic
8.0 prior to installing XP...or Windows 2000. Much faster! ;-)

--
M.f.G.
Michael Kimmer

"Ein Tag an dem Du nicht lächelst ist ein verlorener Tag"
"Eine Nacht in der Du nicht schläfst ist eine verschlafene Nacht"
 
Michael said:
Problaby a time issue

How large (in Gigabytes) is the partition to be formatted?
Click to expand...

76 Gb

From my own experience it may take quite some time when the indicator
leaves the 0% starting position.
Click to expand...

I left it about an hour... I think it's enough :-)
The format process using both format from the Recovery Console as
well as the format process upon installing XP takes incredibly long.
That's why I create and format my installation partition with
PartitionMagic
8.0 prior to installing XP...or Windows 2000. Much faster! ;-)
Click to expand...

OK, but Partition Magic is about 100 euros and my Hard Drive is less
expensive... So I would prefer another solution...
 
Chewee said:
76 Gb



I left it about an hour... I think it's enough :-)


OK, but Partition Magic is about 100 euros and my Hard Drive is less
expensive... So I would prefer another solution...
Click to expand...

76 Gb!!...that explains why the format process *seems* to be stuck at 0%!

Believe me, a 76 Gb primary partition for the OS itself is simply an
/insanity/!
For XP Pro I'd recommend you the following partition (disk) layout:

1st primary partition (NTFS), 10 Gb (Operating system)
2nd primary partition (NTFS), 15 Gb (Applications)
3rd logical partition (NTFS), any size (Data)
....

--
M.f.G.
Michael Kimmer

"Ein Tag an dem Du nicht lächelst ist ein verlorener Tag"
"Eine Nacht in der Du nicht schläfst ist eine verschlafene Nacht"
 
Chewee said:
76 Gb



I left it about an hour... I think it's enough :-)


OK, but Partition Magic is about 100 euros and my Hard Drive is less
expensive... So I would prefer another solution...
Click to expand...

76 Gb!!...that explains why the format process seems to be stuck at 0%!

Believe me, a 76 Gb primary partition for the OS itself is simply an
insanity!
For XP Pro I'd recommend you the following partition (disk) layout:

1st primary partition (NTFS), 10 Gb (Operating system)
2nd logical partition (NTFS), 15 Gb (Applications)
3rd logical partition (NTFS), any size (Data)

--
M.f.G.
Michael Kimmer

"Ein Tag an dem Du nicht lächelst ist ein verlorener Tag"
"Eine Nacht in der Du nicht schläfst ist eine verschlafene Nacht"
 
Michael said:
76 Gb!!...that explains why the format process seems to be stuck at
0%!

Believe me, a 76 Gb primary partition for the OS itself is simply an
insanity!
For XP Pro I'd recommend you the following partition (disk) layout:

1st primary partition (NTFS), 10 Gb (Operating system)
2nd logical partition (NTFS), 15 Gb (Applications)
3rd logical partition (NTFS), any size (Data)
Click to expand...


This disk is only a data disk... That's why I wanted only one partition.
I'll try with lower values but I'm nearly sure that the result will be
identical :-(
 
Richard said:
You should try NTFS Quick Format.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302686&Product=winxp

You should also test the drive for errors.

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

You may try deleting and recreating the partition using DISKPART from
the command shell of WinXP Pro.

I use a 80GB primary partition for OS & data together; whatever floats
your boat is fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
I think that I've found where my problem is.
The disk seems to be a SATA and I thing my motherboard can't support it.
Is there a way to use a SATA hard drive as a basic one ?
 
76 Gb!!...that explains why the format process seems to be stuck at 0%!
Click to expand...

Nope, it wont stick there for an hour.
Believe me, a 76 Gb primary partition
for the OS itself is simply an insanity!
Bullshit.

For XP Pro I'd recommend you the following partition (disk) layout:
Click to expand...
1st primary partition (NTFS), 10 Gb (Operating system)
2nd logical partition (NTFS), 15 Gb (Applications)
3rd logical partition (NTFS), any size (Data)
Click to expand...

Mindlessly silly. Thats not his problem.
 
What exactly is your motherboard model again? SATA and IDE data
connectors are totally different, so if your mobo doesn't support SATA
and your drive is SATA, then you could not have even connected the
drive. You can use a SATA drive on an IDE channel, if you buy a
special adapter. I have heard rumors that these adapters have
reliability and performance problems though.
 
Richard said:
What exactly is your motherboard model again? SATA and IDE data
connectors are totally different, so if your mobo doesn't support SATA
and your drive is SATA, then you could not have even connected the
drive. You can use a SATA drive on an IDE channel, if you buy a
special adapter. I have heard rumors that these adapters have
reliability and performance problems though.
Click to expand...


It's an ASUS A7A266.
I didn't have any problem to plug the drive ont the connector... And the
drive is recognized by the BIOS.
Well, I don't really know what exactly is this hard drive.
I only know that it's a Maxtor 80 Gb and its name in Windows XP harware list
is "Maxtor 6Y080P0".
 
Back
Top