The Format Did Not Complete Successfully :(

[Jethro Jackson]

Greetings,

I've read the other postings about this problem but they seem to
involve larger drives. I'm hoping there's a Windows XP expert out
there that can solve my mystery. Here's my situation:

I'm using Windows XP with all updates other than the new Security
Service Pack and recently installed a new 40gb Maxtor 6EO4OLO drive as
a Second Hard Drive. The drive was installed using the MapBlast 3
software and appears in both My Computer and Disk Management. It shows
as a "healthy" active drive with the letter "f:". It shows a capacity
of 38.28 with 100% free with a "No" under the Fault Tolerance column
and a "0%" under the Overhead column. The area in the File System
column is blank. (I knew from clicking on the "f:" drive while in the
My Computer area that the drive needed to be formatted) I right
clicked on drive f: while still in the Disk Management area and then
chose NTFS for the file type and Default for the Allocation Unit Size.
Then I started the format. It takes a little bit and reaches 100% but
then the message box pops up "The format did not complete
successfully". The drive shows up in Disk Management as Disk 1 with
my C drive showing as Disk 0. This has me baffled. I then used
Mapblast 3 again and set the drive up with two equal partitions. All
seemed to go well using the software but then the drive didn't show up
in My Computer or Disk Management at all. I then went back and set it
up as one partition, it once again appeared in My Computer and Disk
Management and tried formatting again with the same results. I then
tried a Quick format with no success. If anyone can help me through
this living Hell of a Nightmare it would be most appreciated!

Thanks!

Jethro

 

[SpongeBob SquarePants]

Suggest using disk management and removing all partitions, including the
hidden one created by MaxBlast software, then again using disk management,
partition and format using XP's native utilities. MaxBlast is needed for
computer BIOS that is not 32-bit LBA capable - aka middle 90's technology
motherboards - modern late 90's and up are all 32-bit LBA if not 48-bit LBA
capable.
--
"SpongeBob SquarePants"
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

Small Note: If you want to learn how to fix/do something, I'll point you to
it, but if you want me to do your work for you, it will cost you $50 USD per
hour - your choice.

 

[Steelbottom]

Hi ... You have 2 hard drive , Is this correct ? And why
are you using Mapblast 3 ? if you just want to reformat
your drive then do so in the disk management , just right
click the drive and select format

 

[Jethro Jackson]

Hi ... You have 2 hard drive , Is this correct ? And why
are you using Mapblast 3 ? if you just want to reformat
your drive then do so in the disk management , just right
click the drive and select format

Hi There Steelbottom...yes I have two hard drives.....c: and f: I'm
trying to format the secondary drive "f:" within the Disk Management
area...this is where I get the message mentioned above in original
post.

Spongebob....when I delete the partition using Disk Management, the
second hard drive "f:" disappears completely from Disk Management and
My Computer.
I then have to use MapBlast3 again to get it to reappear.

Did I misunderstand what you meant in regards to deleting all
partitions including the hidden one?

Thanks Again!

Jethro

 

[Len]

Go to Maxtor's site (as I believe you mean MaxBlast) and get their utilities
disk. This will allow you to remove all partitions and right zeros to both
the MBR and disk.

Do not use MaxBlast to partition/format or do any disk activity. Boot back
into windows and partition/format the drive from disk management. As the
other poster mentioned these overlay type programs are not only unnecessary
but actually create problems especially with XP!

FWIW, Len

 

[tallyman]

If I'm reading it correctly he was using MapBlast(sic) t
set-up/partition the drive in the first place - as recommended by th
manufacturer. As mentioned, MaxBlast has been around for some time no
& it's probably better to let Windows do the partitioning/formattin
from within Disk Management. I'd still use MaxBlast to do a thoroug
drive check beforehand though.

*Hi ... You have 2 hard drive , Is this correct ? And why
are you using Mapblast 3 ? if you just want to reformat
your drive then do so in the disk management , just right
click the drive and select format

-
tallyma

 

[WSZsr]

How did you jumper the new hard drive?

 

[LVTravel]

Almost as important, how did he jumper the old drive? Sometime when adding
a second drive, the jumper on the first drive (especially when it's a
Western Digital drive) needs to be changed also.

 

[Jethro Jackson]

Almost as important, how did he jumper the old drive? Sometime when adding
a second drive, the jumper on the first drive (especially when it's a
Western Digital drive) needs to be changed also.

I don't remember exactly how I jumpered the drive as I installed this
drive probably six months ago. I know for sure that I carefully
followed the instructions from Maxtor. The drive appears to be
installed properly judging from what I'm seeing in Disk Management.
I'm just now getting around to using it.

Someone else suggested I download and run the PowerMax untility from
Maxtor to determine if the drive is defective and perhaps delete a
partition. Unfortunately, I don't have an "a" floppy drive that
functions...only a "b" usb external floppy. The program will only
install onto a floppy in the "a" drive...seems pretty crazy to me.

Thanks for everyone's help...once this gets solved, I'll be sure to
post a followup.

Jethro

 

[Frank]

My USB Floppy Drive come up as A: on XP machines
without a floppy drive installed.
In the BIOS:
DRIVE A = NONE
DRIVE B = NONE
Boot from USB FDD first if I want to boot from it.

 

[LVTravel]

Jethro, check to see what the Physical C: drive is in your system. Do this
by right clicking on My Computer and then left clicking on Manage. Left
click on Disk Management. Right click on Disk 0 and then left click on
Properties.

Make sure that the general tab is selected. The type of drive will appear
immediately under the tabs General/Policies/Volumes/Driver. If it shows as
WDC (followed by anything) you have a Western Digital drive as the primary
boot disk.

If you did not change the jumper on this drive when you installed the Maxtor
drive as the secondary yours is exactly the type of problem that will happen
when attempting to access the second drive.

If Disk 0 shows as a Western Digital (WDC followed by anything) you need to
change the jumper on the original drive from a single drive to Master with
slave (the jumper will need to be moved to the middle pair of pins of the 5
pairs on the jumper block as shown below). It may also be on CS (cable
select) which may or may not work but I have had difficulties when placing a
Maxtor drive in CS or Slave status with a WD drive in CS.

As originally shipped a WD drive's jumper will be:
40 pin connector . . . __ Power connector
. . . . .

This would be the setting if Cable Select is currently selected.
40 pin connector : : : : | Power connector

The proper setting with a slave drive attached needs to be:
40 pin connector : : | : : Power connector
jumper block

------------------------------

The Maxtor disk should be set as a slave drive. There should be no jumper
on pins 50 as shown here:
40 pin connector : : : : : Power connector

If the drive is set as cable select it would look like:
40 pin connector : | : : : Power connector

And if the Maxtor drive is set for Master (it shouldn't be) it would be set
as:
40 pin connector | : : : : Power connector
jumper block

 

[Jethro Jackson]

Thanks for everyone's help. I was able to run the PowerMax diagnostic
software and discovered that the drive failed the advanced full test
and is unrepairable. I confirmed this over the phone with Maxtor
Customer Service. The code was Caa5ac78. Quite a bummer as it's out
of warranty. This was a drive that I'd installed but never even tried
to use until recently. Just over a year old. It was new to me.
Based on this drive failure, I'll be staying away from Maxtor internal
drives and purchasing an external drive. Thanks again to everyone who
posted offering suggestions.

 

[LVTravel]

Sorry to hear about the dead drive. Maxtor does make a good product and I
have always been happy with their service. Unfortunately they, like most
other drive manufacturers, have lowered the time of their warranties from 3
years to 1 year. One cost of making things cheaper is they don't warrant
them as long.

 

[Bob I]

Actually the warranty length is determined by the drive you purchase.
The "quality" drives go 3-5 years. The "cheapies" get a 1 year. So
purchase accordingly.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...us/Support/Warranty Services/Warranty Periods

http://info.seagate.com/mk/get/AMER_WARRANTY_0704_JUMP

 

[LVTravel]

I agree but if you look at their warranty information for their RETAIL
products they are all 1 year warranties. Only when you get to either the
OEM or distributor products can you get warranties greater than 1 year.
They are relatively hard to find for the average computer consumer.

Yes Seagate does offer a 5 year warranty on all computer hard drives
purchased after July 26, 2004. Hopefully other manufacturers will follow
suit. Might affect the next hard drive I purchase but I have only had 2
hard drive failures in 10+ years and they were both Seagate drives. I am
still using my Maxtor 1.2 GB and WD 512 MB drives in an old machine still
running Win 3.11 & DOS (kept for old DOS games).

BTW, I also have a Server with 100 GB C, 160 GB D, 200 GB E and 250 GB F
drives (mix of Maxtor and WD), a desktop with a 80 GB (Maxtor) C and a 160
GB D drive RAID (dual WD 80 GB) setup, and a second desktop with 100 GB
Maxtor C, 120 GB WD D, and 200 GB WD E drives.

Actually the warranty length is determined by the drive you purchase.
The "quality" drives go 3-5 years. The "cheapies" get a 1 year. So
purchase accordingly.

......SNIP

 

[Guest]

Where does one go to find where disk management is?

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Pat;
Disk Management:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309000

Start/Run
Type "compmgmt.msc" ENTER