doomed with hard drives

[MattandJet]

hi all, most of you are probably aware of my hd problems... lol

But anyway I have the Raptor and the thing is it wont format.

Ive tried formatting it by installing windows - doesnt go above 0%, ive tried disk management it just says "formatting"(with no % progess bar) and then crashes...


i dont know what to do, could the drive be faulty?

my specs are p4 3.2ghz, 2gb ddr ram, 865gm3-ls mobo...

lol HDs dont like me

-- i installed and formatted the other drive i bought (a seagate baracuda) and that works fine

 

[andyp]

Is it a brand new Raptor?

The first one I bought was DOA, did exactly the same as what you're describing there. After a couple of times trying to install XP, it just clicked on startup a few times, made a horrible crunching noise and gave up completely.

RMA back to WD Germany and back went very smoothly and efficiently though.

 

[MattandJet]

yes it was new, well it was bought from OCUK

 

[MattandJet]

hmm perhaps the lack of posts means nobody knows

hopefully its my motherboard at fault, as it is quite old... buying a new one anyway next week ... just odd that it formatted the baracuda...? hmm

Matt.

 

[FatRakoon]

Have you tried doing anythign in DOS?

Grab yourself a DOS Floppy, or Boot image or whatever, and use the good old FDISK / FORMAT combo to try to get something on the disk, and then once its done that, give Windows another try???

I know that sometimes, if I try putting Vista onto the Raptor, getting XP back onto the disk afterwards is a pain because it fails to format the disk and the only way I have found, that will let me format it, is to

1 - disconnect all other HDs
2 - Start up the XP Install
3 - Delete the previous partition
4 - Reboot ( Weirdly, if I dont reboot, it fails to see that its been wiped off??? EH? )
5 - Make new Partition

Could be similar for you???

 

[MattandJet]

Have you tried doing anythign in DOS?

Grab yourself a DOS Floppy, or Boot image or whatever, and use the good old FDISK / FORMAT combo to try to get something on the disk, and then once its done that, give Windows another try???

I know that sometimes, if I try putting Vista onto the Raptor, getting XP back onto the disk afterwards is a pain because it fails to format the disk and the only way I have found, that will let me format it, is to

1 - disconnect all other HDs
2 - Start up the XP Install
3 - Delete the previous partition
4 - Reboot ( Weirdly, if I dont reboot, it fails to see that its been wiped off??? EH? )
5 - Make new Partition

Could be similar for you???

whats FDISK/FORMAT? is that something in BIOS?? - and my old floppy drive doesnt work anymore.. lol

 

[FatRakoon]

FDISK / FORMAT

They are 2 of the most needed programs when using DOS, to create/delete partitions on a HD... They got used on my PCs more than any other program back in the 80s ( Not that far from the truth actually )

FDISK at the moment for you would be the most useful

You can use this tool. to remove any partition data on the disk already. and then you can use Windows to make the new partition and with a splash of good fortune, you can get yourself running again???

 

[Tute]

Do you have another PC you can try the drive in to check it's not the motherboard playing up?

 

[MattandJet]

l'll try what you suggested fatrakoon, but I think it could possibly be my motherboard or its old southbridge thing, its a 865gm3 if anyone would kindly look for me to see if it does theoretically support a raptor.

it seems strange that it lets the seagate 7200.11 (which i believe is a fairly new drive), but idk lol.

Any more help would be gladly appreciated, I am ordering either a newer x38 Mobo or a P35 mobo on friday, so hopefully its just the mobo


Its just odd, it detects it when it loads up the computer, it says somehting along the lines of

IDE Channel 1 Master: Maxtor (my original HD)
IDE Channel 1 Slave: none
IDE Channel 2 Master: DVDRW Drive
IDE Channel 2 Slave: none

IDE Channel 3: WD1500ADFD
IDE Channel 4: none

So it does detect it and diskmanager detects it as well, but it just wont seem to format, - could this be a problem with the drive if it doesnt format but is still detected?

also people say the raptors are supposed to be loud, yet mine is making any loud sounds??? - ive got a 700w PSU, so it cantbe a power problem?

Thanks

Matt.

 

[ByteJuggler]

You should run WD's diagnostics on the drive. (See the sticky at the top of the forum.) Could be that the drive is faulty. If the motherboard works with the Seagate then I see no reason to suspect the motherboard/controller in the first instance.

 

[C64]

I really think it's long overdue these companys that are huge had UK & other country depots for Rma's really is an insult to their customers that they must send to germany and usa just to do an rma.It's hardly worth paying the cost of the postage these days.

 

[FatRakoon]

It is stupid for foreign countries to open up a base in the UK

The UK taxes are so high, that it is simply not financially viable.

They pay "X" to any employee, but when it comes to the UK, they have to pay almost " X*2 " and then building the base in the UK costs between 7 and 10 times more than it costs on the continent, with the hikes cost of labour, and materials.

Then of course, the wages for the staff... That alone would be more than sending the hard drives over as and when they need to.

No, having a business in the UK is vasty more expensive than having one in Europe.

Its like my mum.

She thought she was buying a duplex in Turkey, but she bought the entire block. This had 6 duplexes in.

She decided to have the bottom left for herself, and family, the bottom right for a keeper & Cleaner who are married ( Turkish law forces that any business can be run by british, but they must have turkish workers and I think thats a brilliant idea ) and the top left is mine and the top right is my brothers and the middle lot are for holiday makers right...

Well, in the first year, my mother made 100K and she never even knew it.

Naturally on the massive mney she makes in turkey, she is now living there more than over here, and all *** wealth she has built up in the UK in the last 30 years, is less than the wealth she has built up in turkey in just 3.

The UK is the worst country in the world for raping the people of its money, and its simply NOT cost effective for a foreign country, to invest in the UK anymore, and you cannot blame the companies at all for that.

Build a factory in Holland, it will cost you 10Million and 5 mmillion a year to run it.
Built it in the UK and it will cost 40 Million to build and 15 Million a year to run it.

Where you going to build it?