74MB used space after formatting 250GB drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas Jespersen
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Thomas Jespersen

Hi

I just formatted a 250GB disk. I got the disk form our network
administrator, because it failed in a RAID system, but he was not sure
weather the disk was damaged or not.

Here is the result of the format comand:

C:\>format I:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Enter current volume label for drive I: Data

WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK
DRIVE I: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? y
Verifying 239366M
Volume label (ENTER for none)? Data
Creating file system structures.
Format complete.
245111704 KB total disk space.
245035780 KB are available.


First. It took arround 1½ -2 hours to format the drive from the XP shell. Is
this normal?

Second: When I look at the properties of the driver from My Computer, It
says Used Space: 74,4MB. Is this normal? After doing a Quick Format it now
says 71,1MB used!

I think that this is suspicious. But the result of the format doesn't say
anything about bad sectors.

Should I trust this dirve or not?

Thomas
 
Thomas

Your very own words.. "because it failed in a RAID system".. hardly a sign
that says 'trust me', eh..
 
Hi,

I wouldn't be concerned as 71 MB on a 250 gig HD is nothing really, not even
1/10 a gig. Is the 71mb used shown after you have loaded your operating
system? If so, then I would assume that is the amount of space required/used
by XP to install itself.

I am disgusted to see the response you received from this Mike Hall guy who
is supposed to be helpful as he is a MS-MVP. He should not be allowed on
here if that is the best he can do in the way of reply. No one needs a smart
a** or that type of answer when they have a concern. Just hope he doesn't
have kids!!! Poor things.

gman
 
Hi

Thanks for you answers.

I just formatted a 20GB partition, and it also has 65MB used space after
formatting. Gman! This is not a Windows system drive, there are no files on
the drive what so ever. I think the MB is reserved to the NTFS file
structure, so it will always be at the beginning of the drive. I just tried
formatting a 20GB partition on another disk as Fat32 (Format I: /fs:Fat32
/q)... and now it only says Used Space = 16.384Bytes,

So I started using the drive 250GB Drive now, and although it works, it
kill's the performance of my mashing. The processor goes up around 100%, and
it took 150 min to move the 20GB of data for another disk to this disk!!

So something is wrong, but it might be something else. If you have a
suggestion, feel free to reply. Otherwise I think you answered my questions.
Used space is quite normal. Thanks.

I'll think I will use the drive for Recorded TV, DVD Rips and other files
which I can accept loosing, and which I don't use on a daily basic.

Thanks again. Thomas
 
Gman

Regardless of the 71mb seemingly lost, if somebody asked me if I would trust
a drive that had failed in a RAID array, I would give the same answer each
time, and that answer would be a resounding 'NO'.. it is not a smartass
answer.. it is a 'sense' answer..

What would you like me to say to his final question, again his words..
"Should I trust this drive or not?" .. a drive that failed in a RAID array..

I was a computer hardware engineer for many years, and experience would tell
me not to trust the drive.. that is and remains my final answer..

Re. my family, that is a subject in which you know less than zero, and I
would thank you to keep your mindless snipes to yourself, and not to air
them in a public place..
 
Just a follow up.

I got rid of the performance problems. I did 2 things. First I tried
reconnecting the cables and then I discovered that the drive was not listed
in my bios. After fixing this the system and drive performance is now
normal. I copied the 20GB in a matter of minitues.

Regarding Mikes statement about trusting the drive. I do agree with him... I
will not trust this drive something critical. On the other hand his
statement was not adding anything new. I wanted to know weather the symptoms
I described should worry me or if they were normal.

My conclusions is that the drive now looks healthy now. But I will only used
for DVD-Rips, DivX, MP3 and recorded TV, which I can accept loosing. I can
always rip the DVD's and CD again.

Thomas
 
Thomas said:
First. It took arround 1½ -2 hours to format the drive from the XP shell. Is
this normal?
No.


Second: When I look at the properties of the driver from My Computer, It
says Used Space: 74,4MB. Is this normal?

No.
 
How long do you think it takes to format a 250gig drive?
And how much space do you think NTFS is going to take on a 250gig drive?
 
Bill said:
How long do you think it takes to format a 250gig drive?
And how much space do you think NTFS is going to take on a 250gig
drive?

How long it will take to format will depnd on several factors.
If you mean a pure (long) format - it could take in excess of a few hours.

If you have SP1 and LBA turned on and your BIOS (motherboard/controller)
recognizes the full size in the hardware side - then you should get about
230GB.
 
Bill said:
How long do you think it takes to format a 250gig drive?
And how much space do you think NTFS is going to take on a 250gig
drive?

Shenan said:
How long it will take to format will depnd on several factors.
If you mean a pure (long) format - it could take in excess of a
few hours.
If you have SP1 and LBA turned on and your BIOS
(motherboard/controller) recognizes the full size in the hardware
side - then you should get about 230GB.
Seems Plato would disagree I was hoping he would answer.

I don't think Plato would disagree. You could perform a quick format and it
would take less than 15 minutes.. Max.
However - if you perform an actual format NTFS - it could take a long period
of time.
Not to mention, if you were going to perform a low-level or multi-pass zero
write - it could take a day or more.

232GB should be the reported formatted size *if* your hardware and OS
detects everything correctly AND the drive is not bad.
You could just try it in another system.
 
if it takes that long to format the drive , the drive is probably
****ed up, bad sectors.

Windows XP probably doesn't tell you or show you the bad sectors
anymore, because it's ****ing stupid.
 
To Mike Hall:

The gentleman did not provide any facts related to the "failure." His
statement was that the drive "failed in a RAID system." Why take someone
else's word (the IT guy) and not provide an answer that might help determine
if the drive is, in fact, bad? Witness how the "bad performance" of the
drive had nothing to do whatsoever with the drive's reliability. It was
operator error, so to speak. Even the question of how long it should take
to format the 250 gig drive has differing opinions from the people reading
this post -- depending on the circumstances, WHICH WERE LEFT UNEXPLAINED IN
THE ANSWER. Thus, there was ambiguity.

If you wish to stand behind and defend your answer as given, though you can
probably do so based on the way that one (of TWO) question was phrased, so be
it; but, were I in your position as a MS-MVP and with your experience, I
would have delved deeper, plain and simple.

So, that is my answer and I'm sticking to it !!!

gman
 
Gman

It doesn't matter what the reason for failure was.. the pure fact that it
was removed from a failed array is enough.. Raid array drives are pushed
hard, and if one fails, there is a reasonable chance that the other drive(s)
may too.. drives would have to be the same type to be used in an array, and
most likely from the same batch..

Testing the drive today would have little bearing on what may happen
tomorrow.. simple disk tests do not show up errors too efficiently.. a low
level format shows up errors that simple tests often miss, and even if it
gets through a LLF today, there is no guarantee that the drive will be ok
tomorrow, especially as it is a drive that has come out of a failed array..
it is dumb enough to 100% trust a drive freshly removed from the
manufacturers sealed packaging, let alone one that was part of a failed
array.. if the drive was good, ask yourself why the IT guy gave it away.. it
could have been used as a 'hot' spare. or in another stand alone system..

So, has any of this helped the OP?.. hardly.. should he trust the drive?..
no.. should he use the drive?.. that is at his discretion..
 
To Mike Hall:

One cannot go through life taking everyone else's word about everything.
You are convinced, it seems, that based solely on the IT guy's statement that
the drive failed that it is, in fact, a bad drive. I am not convinced of
such, especially as I have known too many IT people who didn't know crap, but
could get away with idiotic statments and bungling because management and
employees either didn't have the time or knowledge (or both) to dispute what
these IT people claim as gospel. And to make my point, I included in my
response how this gentleman berated the drive as being slow when the problem
wasn't the drive at all. Here was his statement:

"So I started using the drive 250GB Drive now, and although it works, it
kill's the performance of my mashing (I guess machine is what is meant here,
not mashing -- gman). The processor goes up around 100%, and
it took 150 min to move the 20GB of data for another disk to this disk!!

So something is wrong..."

Forgetting eveything else this guy has posted, if he had presented the above
as his problem with the drive would you have told him based on that statement
that it was a bad drive? Yes?

I think I've made my point. Case closed.

gman
 
Case re-opened..

You made a point, but missed the big one.. I never said that it was
'definitely' a bad drive, only that I wouldn't trust it.. and remember this,
a bad drive today may well have appeared to be a good drive yesterday, as in
the case of a brand new 80GB of mine that failed after three days in a
system.. so, if a new drive can go down that fast, what of a drive taken
from a failed array?..

Now you can close it..
 

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