Can no longer access second HD "Disk is not formatted"

[Guest]

I can no longer access my information in D: Drive. It's not a partition from
C: but hardware (Maxtor Hard Drive). I receive this error message.
"Disk is not formatted. The disk in Drive D is not formatted. Do you want to
format it now?"

I have tried a chkdsk with no luck. Funny thing is that Norton 2005
Antivirus can scan the drive with no errors. I also ran a diagnostic from
Maxtor.com and gave me a code for replacing the unit. "Please save any
information soon" it stated. I REALLY need to have access to this drive and
CANNOT lose anything... HELP!!

 

[Guest]

I have this exact same problem. It happened right after I upgraded to SP2.
Under SP1/1a the partitions are still intact but under SP2 The drive is a dud
now.

Norton DiskDoctor could not read it and despite numerous chkdsk's the file
system was still unreadable. I reverted to SP1a and backed up the data and
then blasted the partitions but I cannot format any of them now.

 

[WinGuy]

I can no longer access my information in D: Drive. It's not a partition
from
C: but hardware (Maxtor Hard Drive). I receive this error message.
"Disk is not formatted. The disk in Drive D is not formatted. Do you want
to
format it now?"

I have tried a chkdsk with no luck. Funny thing is that Norton 2005
Antivirus can scan the drive with no errors. I also ran a diagnostic
from
Maxtor.com and gave me a code for replacing the unit. "Please save any
information soon" it stated. I REALLY need to have access to this drive
and
CANNOT lose anything... HELP!!

You, or someone that knows how, should check in BIOS and make sure, if the
opeion is available, that S.M.A.R.T. is turned on. Its purpose is to provide
notification to the operating system if the Hard Disk drive is failing.

Perhaps, if damage has not been excessive, this procedure will help you.

Open My Computer and right-click the drive (D icon, and then select
Properties. Then click the Tools tab, and then the Check Now button. Make
sure both of the options are selected (fix errors automatically and also
check for bad sectors). Click the Start button. If asked if you want to
schedule the test to occur during the next boot, allow it. The test could
take a few hours to complete, but unless damage is excessive or the Hard
Drive is very large then it will usually take less than 30 minutes.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the suggestions. I have activated the S.M.A.R.T. and that
didn't work. When I get the properties for D: Is says 0 Used 0 Free. I
tried the scan disk and doesn't even launch. Defrag doesn't see the drive.
I can hear the drive being scanned over and over until it stops and then pc
resumes functionality. I didn't have issues with SP2.

 

[Guest]

I do not think that is the answer. I have a Maxtor 6L040J2 drive, as
secondary on primary controller, that both Windows XP TRM and SP1/1a work
with just fine. I installed SP2 RC2 a while back and had all the partitions
on my that drive become suddenly "Unreadable or Currupted" in spite of
numerous chkdsk's at boot up.

On a hunch I removed SP2 and reverted back to SP1 and they worked fine.

Figuring it to be a bug in thew RC2 I left my system at 1 for a while. Now I
decide to put SP2 baqck on and had the same thing happen. I reverted to RTM
and copied my data over to an external drive and then repartitioned the
6L040J2 in SP2 and now I cannot format the partitions.

I got The Ultimate Boot Disk and ran Maxtor's PowerMax disgnostics on it. I
did the basic and advanced testing and it passed. I then did a 3 pass burn-in
test which the utility states that passing this certifies the drive as error
free. To be on the safe side too I performed a full low-level format on the
drive.

Just ten minuites ago I booted back into WinXP and partitioned the drive. It
got most of the way through it and then errored out as it had before. I went
out to the shell and ran "Format v: /x /c /fs:ntfs /u" and it got all the way
through and then at "Creating file system structures" it said "Format faile".

This *has* to be an SP2 problem. There is no other explaination esspecially
when according to the manufacturor of the drive, Maxtor, the drive in
question is error free.

 

[WinGuy]

Thank you for the suggestions. I have activated the S.M.A.R.T. and that
didn't work. When I get the properties for D: Is says 0 Used 0 Free.
I
tried the scan disk and doesn't even launch. Defrag doesn't see the
drive.
I can hear the drive being scanned over and over until it stops and then
pc
resumes functionality. I didn't have issues with SP2.

Hi again, Marc. S.M.A.R.T. simply provides an event that you would see in
Event Viewer if the drive reports that it thinks that its starting to fail,
is all. It wouldn't fix anything, just give you a heads up is all. If
S.M.A.R.T. is enabled and built into the HDD but doesn't report a problem to
Windows Event Viewer then it's fairly safe to assume your problem is not
becuase of a failing drive. S.M.A.R.T. is part of the HDD, not part of
Wndows. Windows and the BIOS just recognize it, if enabled to do so.

I saw Belinus had a reply, too. Hmmm. Ok, I've seen an odd situation occur 3
times on 3 different computers within the last 2 years, and I missed one of
them and permanently lost a customer in result when another tech at a
different shop discovered a failing CD drive causing a problem with the HDD.
The failing CD Drive was drawing down the motherboard controller chip
sometimes, and causing intermittant (not always at the same place or
circumstance) failure of HDD in those 3 cases. Try removing the flat ribbon
cables from any CD drives you have, and see if that "fixes" the problem with
the HDD. If so, one of your CD drives is failing. Also try moving the D
drive over to one of the secondary IDE channels (that the CD drive/s were
probably connected to) and see if that causes different of fix of the
symptom. One of the 2 I did diagnose properly could not drive more than 2
devices, regardless of how they were distributed on the primary and
secondary IDE channels (the controller chip on the motherboard was becoming
defective).

I use only Maxtor (my favorite) and WD when I clone (do a bootable image
copy) of a HDD, and I've certainly not had any problems with any of them so
far and I've done it many times. Unless Maxtor has had a bad manufacturing
run of late, I would not be so quick to fault the drive itself if S.M.A.R.T.
isn't complaining.

I've just not had any problems with SP2 and HDD's of any brand, so far, but
Belinus says he has. I *do* have a problem with Microsft Office 10 whenever
a HDD image copy is made, though. Which greatly annoys me, since I very
often do an image copy backup before starting repair on a customer's
computer (although it's to a WD instead of to a Maxtor).

If you're using a big drive (greater than 120 gigs) with XP, be sure to get
the registry mod utility for big drives from the Maxtor website or data loss
can result. WD installs it automatically for WD drives, but you need the
utility for Maxtor drives. Big drives that are SCSI might require a SCSI
controller that can recognize the entire drive, else data loss can result if
formatted to maximum drive capacity. Partition big drives to 120gigs or less
per partition, if in doubt.

Winguy