Cannot format new 200gb Hard disk

[Milleniumaire]

I have just installed a new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200gb
(ST3200822A) drive to replace an old 9gb drive.

Windows XP Disk Manager recognises the drive and reports it as
186.31GB Unallocated. I can create a Primary Partition on this drive
to use up all 186.31GB, however if I also choose to format it then at
the very end of the format process I get the error

"Logical Disk Manager: The format did not complete successfully".

The drive appears in Windows Explorer and when I try to access it I am
told that it is not formatted and prompts me to format it - which also
fails.

I have also tried using Partition Magic 8.0 but this fails with Error
#514 Unknown error formatting volume during the final stage of
Updating System Information.

When searching the Net, the number 137GB kept appearing as a "large
disk" boundary which may cause problems, so I tried creating a
partition of 130GB and it worked, however this leaves me with 70GB of
wasted space! I am unable to create more partitions to use up the
extra space as the formatting fails.

I am running Windows XP SP2 (I also tried it with SP1 before upgrading
to SP2). The fact that windows CAN see the full size of the disk and
create partitions, but cannot format them seems curious.

I have run some Seagate diagnostic tools to check the disk and no
errors have been reported.

My machine spec. is:
Gigabyte GA-8IHXP Socket 478 ATX Rev 2.1
Intel Pentium 4 2.53ghz Northwood 512
768mb PC1066 Rambus Memory
Winfast A250 Utra TD Graphics
2 x DiamondMax+ D740X 40gb UDMA133 in stripped RAID array
Maxtor 90840D6 9gb
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7
LG GDR-8163BB DVD Rom
LG GSA-4040B Super Multi DVD Drive
Windows XP Professional + SP 2

This appears to be a Windows XP problem, but is it possibly a
Motherboard restriction? (I would have thought not because windows can
see the whole drive, but just can't format it).

I have spent a whole weekend trying to resolve this problem so any
pointers would be useful.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

If you've checked your registry entries and the version of atapi.sys as
described here:

How to Enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing Support for ATAPI Disk Drives
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=303013

Then you may have a BIOS problem. You will need to check that your BIOS
version supports this size drive, and that your detection settings are
correct. If it doesn't, then you may need to flash it with an updated one.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[johnf]

There seems to be something wrong with that page, Rick.

It says if you don't have atapi.sys v5.1.2600.1135, download via ref Q331958
I've been up to date with SP1 & all fixes, yet my atapi.sys which is backed
up after installing SP2 is v5.1.2600.1106 & the SP2 installed version is
v5.1.2600.2180 - no sign of .1135 anywhere.
Have I missed or misread something?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi John,

As long as your version is higher than 1135, it should be sufficient. That
article was written pre-SP2, and 1135 was part of SP1. 1106 is the version
included with the original release of WinXP.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Ron Sommer]

It says if you don't have atapi.sys v5.1.2600.1135 or later.........
2180 is later than 1135.

 

[johnf]

I fully realise that, Ron, I just asked Rick why, when I had SP1 installed,
then installed SP2, I had 1106 backed up, NOT 1135.

 

[johnf]

Thanks, that makes sense, but why on earth did SP2 back up 1106 when SP1
supposedly should have updated it to 1135?

 

[Shawk]

It says if you don't have atapi.sys v5.1.2600.1135 or later.........
2180 is later than 1135.

When I recently bought a 160GB HD I would have had the same issue but
downloaded the instructions and utilities from the HD manufacturers website
to install it properly. Have you done a search at the HD manufacturers site
for this issue and utility? (and yes, you need SP1or later for the
utilities to properly detect and enable the whole drive). Sorry cant give
proper instructions - not a techie. Shaun

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi John,

SP2 replaced SP1 files, so the system just uses originals as backups for
uninstalling.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[johnf]

Ta, but a bit odd if SP2 replaces SP1's atapi.sys with the original 1106.
That means if you have an 180 gig drive, install SP2 then for some reason
roll back, you're stuck with your large disk boundary of 133 gig.

 

[neil]

If you want to install your OS on the 200G drive then I believe you need
winXP with SP1, otherwise you will only get 137G then unallocated space
after you have carried out the 48bit addressing instructions. If the MB
doesn't support 48bit addressing then I'm not sure you will ever get a 200G
drive do run at full capacity.

Neil

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi John,

Actually, it depends on the upgrade. If you upgraded over SP1, then the
$uninstall$ directory should contain the SP1 version of files to be
restored, while the system backup may still contain the original. Sorta
screwy....

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[johnf]

Sorry, Rick, I wasn't trying to make an issue of it, just curious.

I have 1106 in -
C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ (Thursday, 29 August 2002, 1:27:50 AM)
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ReinstallBackups\0004\DriverFiles\i386 (ditto)

& 2180 in -
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 (Tuesday, 3 August 2004, 10:59:44 PM)
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers (ditto)

And yes, I upgraded over SP1. I give up.

 

[relic]

I have just installed a new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200gb
(ST3200822A) drive to replace an old 9gb drive.

Windows XP Disk Manager recognises the drive and reports it as
186.31GB Unallocated. I can create a Primary Partition on this drive
to use up all 186.31GB, however if I also choose to format it then at
the very end of the format process I get the error

"Logical Disk Manager: The format did not complete successfully".

The drive appears in Windows Explorer and when I try to access it I am
told that it is not formatted and prompts me to format it - which also
fails.

I have also tried using Partition Magic 8.0 but this fails with Error
#514 Unknown error formatting volume during the final stage of
Updating System Information.

When searching the Net, the number 137GB kept appearing as a "large
disk" boundary which may cause problems, so I tried creating a
partition of 130GB and it worked, however this leaves me with 70GB of
wasted space! I am unable to create more partitions to use up the
extra space as the formatting fails.

I am running Windows XP SP2 (I also tried it with SP1 before upgrading
to SP2). The fact that windows CAN see the full size of the disk and
create partitions, but cannot format them seems curious.

You have the software support for >137GB (SP1), but do you have the hardware
support? BIOS up to date?

 

[Ryan J. Paque]

Windows XP Disk Manager recognises the drive and reports it as
186.31GB Unallocated. I can create a Primary Partition on this drive
to use up all 186.31GB, however if I also choose to format it then at
the very end of the format process I get the error

"Logical Disk Manager: The format did not complete successfully".

When searching the Net, the number 137GB kept appearing as a "large
disk" boundary which may cause problems, so I tried creating a
partition of 130GB and it worked, however this leaves me with 70GB of
wasted space! I am unable to create more partitions to use up the
extra space as the formatting fails.

This appears to be a Windows XP problem, but is it possibly a
Motherboard restriction? (I would have thought not because windows can
see the whole drive, but just can't format it).

I just baught a Western Digital 160GB drive and had the same problem.
Partitioning the drive into 15GB, 15GB, and 119GB sovled the problem
for me. All 160GB (155 available) are recognied by both Windown
Millenium and Windows 2003. (I figured since I have multiple
partitions, might as well take advantage of 'em!)

Its also a good way to seperate your critital system fiels from the
junk most people accumulate over time on the HD's.

Ryan

 

[Herman R Standiford]

I have formatted Maxtor 160GB hard drives by using the MaxBlast 3 Ver 3.6.1
that came with the hard drive. XP can't format more than 137GB drive,
MaxBlast 3 installs the files to your system so XP will see the whole HD.
Herman

 

[Guest]

181.31gb is 200gb according to the new math of disk drives,,,lol, try quick
format instead, if you still have a problem , may have to low level format
the drive to get it ready for a partition and formatting,,, seagate has a
disk that come with these drives partition it with ntfs and format it using
seagate ( actually ontrak) disk partitioning and format utilities, if this
doesnt work contact seagate and get them to fix there problem,

 

[Milleniumaire]

I can confirm that the version of atapi.sys is 5.1.2600.2180 which is
not surprising as I have just applied Windows XP SP2.

I have checked that the registry settings are in place to allow hard
drives to be used and this also looks to be okay. I have just
determined that there is a slightly later version of Bios for my
motherboard so I will have a go at flashing that although my current
Bios is fairly recent so I don't hold out much hope that it will make
a difference.

I did try creating multiple partitions, however I was unable to format
them!

Paul.

 

[Billy]

I have just installed a new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200gb
(ST3200822A) drive to replace an old 9gb drive.

Windows XP Disk Manager recognises the drive and reports it as
186.31GB Unallocated. I can create a Primary Partition on this drive
to use up all 186.31GB, however if I also choose to format it then at
the very end of the format process I get the error

"Logical Disk Manager: The format did not complete successfully".

The drive appears in Windows Explorer and when I try to access it I am
told that it is not formatted and prompts me to format it - which also
fails.

I have also tried using Partition Magic 8.0 but this fails with Error
#514 Unknown error formatting volume during the final stage of
Updating System Information.

When searching the Net, the number 137GB kept appearing as a "large
disk" boundary which may cause problems, so I tried creating a
partition of 130GB and it worked, however this leaves me with 70GB of
wasted space! I am unable to create more partitions to use up the
extra space as the formatting fails.

I am running Windows XP SP2 (I also tried it with SP1 before upgrading
to SP2). The fact that windows CAN see the full size of the disk and
create partitions, but cannot format them seems curious.

I have run some Seagate diagnostic tools to check the disk and no
errors have been reported.

My machine spec. is:
Gigabyte GA-8IHXP Socket 478 ATX Rev 2.1
Intel Pentium 4 2.53ghz Northwood 512
768mb PC1066 Rambus Memory
Winfast A250 Utra TD Graphics
2 x DiamondMax+ D740X 40gb UDMA133 in stripped RAID array
Maxtor 90840D6 9gb
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7
LG GDR-8163BB DVD Rom
LG GSA-4040B Super Multi DVD Drive
Windows XP Professional + SP 2

This appears to be a Windows XP problem, but is it possibly a
Motherboard restriction? (I would have thought not because windows can
see the whole drive, but just can't format it).

I have spent a whole weekend trying to resolve this problem so any
pointers would be useful.

What file system are you trying to format the drive in? FAT 32 can be
mounted in any size, but can not be formatted by XP (or 2000) over 32GB.
A WinMe boot disk could do this or NTFS.

 

[roach]

"XP can't format more than 137GB drive"

Bollox

Just did a 160gig maxtor


Roach