Cannot format hard drive.

[ehwaz]

Months ago, I had a new hard drive installed as slave drive. It is
Samsung SP0411N (40GB) and it worked fine. I was able to save som
files into it. Later, I moved out files from it and then when I trie
to save other files, it says that the hard drive is not formatted.

So I tried to format it in every way I knew (boot disk, righ
click>format) but when it gets to 99% or so, it says "the disk canno
be formatted".

I checked disk management. It says:
Volume - (F
Layout - Partition
Type - Basic
File System - (it's blank)
Status - Healthy (Active)
Capacity - 37.31 GB
Free Space - 37.31 GB
% Free - 100%
Fault Tolerance - No
Overhead - 0%

Below that it says:
Disk 1
Basic
37.31 GB
Online
(F
37.31 GB
Healthy (Active)

It has a navy-blue strip = stands for "primary partition".

However when I try to open or explore the drive, it says "The disk i
drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" So I click ye
and it happens again, at around 99% or so, it says, "windows was unabl
to complete the format".

I don't get what's wrong. I even reinstalled the driver. I also set th
CMOS parameters to auto detect.

Thanks in advance for the help. :

 

[Jerry]

Hard drive manufacturers provide tools and utilities on their web sites to
diagnose problems or setup their drives. Go there and see what they have.

 

[Guest]

If you haven't already tried this option, might help you to format that drive..
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm
j;-j

:

 

[keith S]

Use disk management to delete the partition ,then re-create it and
format it. DONT set it active.

 

[Guest]

Since your HD capacity and free space are the same, I would use "Keith S"
response because it doesn't look like you will lose any data that way.
If you are really into computers and have Partition Magic, see thread titled
"Serial ATA HDD Problem" dated 10/14. Read Richard Urban response.
Good Luck!