stevie_b Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 A long shot, but here goes..... I've just tried to format an internal 40GB IDE slave hard disk in my PC at home (using Partition Magic if that's important). For some crazy reason, I got impatient with it and decided to cancel the formatting part-way through. Now I can't format the disk at all. Every formatting program I've tried to throw at it, doesn't get past "0% formatted" and just hangs. I've tried formatting using Partition Magic, Windows XP setup CD, and Windows XP control panel utility. None seem to make any progress at all. The earlier aborted format seems to have corrupted the disk. Has anyone else successfully recovered from such a predicament (e.g. using a "low-level" formatting tool)? There's no data on the hard disk I need, I just want to format it (with NTFS). . It just shows up as having a raw partition that takes up the whole disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilicos Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 This is a very long shot but try looking in your recycle bin and see if the data was sent there. If so, try restoring the data. The worry here is that you have corrupted the disk. Not impossible to fix but rather than paying someone to do it for you it would probably be cheaper to buy a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 This is a very long shot but try looking in your recycle bin and see if the data was sent there. If so, try restoring the data. I'm not looking to recover any data. The hard disk has got a partially-formatted partition that takes up the entire drive. I'm trying to format it so I can use the disk. The worry here is that you have corrupted the disk. Not impossible to fix but rather than paying someone to do it for you it would probably be cheaper to buy a new one. I tend to agree. The disk is corrupted in some level. I was hoping that I'd be able to un-corrupt it by using some clever utility (hence some kind of "low-level formatting"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 You could try this http://www.dban.org/ Download the ISO burn to CD and boot from it, see if that'll format it. *I accept no responsibility if you end up formatting the wrong hard disc or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamc Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 start Run CMD FDISK x: Should allow you to delete the partition. Then re-create it, then re-format it in windows, using the quick format option. PS. DONT fdisk your normal bootable drive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 Graham: I'll try your way first as it's less intrusive than DBAN. Thorin: Thanks for that. I've got a copy of DBAN somewhere, I've used it to wipe disks in the past. Will give it a go and report back..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 If you have any linux skills you could erase the first few blocks of the disk, this is very dangerous and unless you are 100% sure I wouldnt try it. Here is the command :- dd if=/etc/zero of=/dev/[disk id] bs=512 count=16 This will basically write zeros over the beginning of the disk with 16 records at 512 block sizes. When you issue this command the OS will ask you to initialise the disk as if it were new and you will have to create the partition table, after which you can format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Graham: I'll try your way first as it's less intrusive than DBAN. Good idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 If you have any linux skills you could erase the first few blocks of the disk, this is very dangerous and unless you are 100% sure I wouldnt try it. I have been known to dabble in the ways of the penguin, so I'll try that if the other ways don't work. Presumably "disk id" should be 1 for a slave shouldn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I have been known to dabble in the ways of the penguin, so I'll try that if the other ways don't work. Presumably "disk id" should be 1 for a slave shouldn't it? /dev/hda 1st (Primary) IDE controller Master /dev/hdb 1st (Primary) IDE controller Slave /dev/hdc 2nd (Secondary) IDE controller Master /dev/hdd 2nd (Secondary) IDE controller Slave /dev/hdb1 would be the first partition on the primary controller slave. For dd you only need to identify the drive, you dont care about the partitions. Just be careful you have the correct ID as it does no checking what so ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 It's /dev/sd[abcd] now as the ATAPI stuff uses the scsi subsystem or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRalphMan Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 For some crazy reason, I got impatient with it and decided to cancel the formatting part-way through. That's the equivalent of kicking down mid bend.... It's gonna hurt. As others have said, I think a Low Level Format is your only choice, but I thought that some IDE drives would be killed if you did that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 AFAIK the concept of low level formatting has not existed for decades. I would just run DBAN, or try rewriting a MBR with "fdisk /mbr" from a Win9x boot floppy (http://www.bootdisk.com), or look at the partition layout prior to attempting the format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 A progress report: I was able to run DBAN to completion: when it completed it said there were non-fatal errors on the disk. That didn't concern me too much, I assumed it meant bad sectors or something. Having run DBAN, it still wouldn't format with WinXP or Partition Magic. So, I booted from an Ubuntu installation CD and ran GParted (the graphical hard disk config utility) from the CD. That couldn't format the entire disk either, so I tried a new tactic of not bothering to format the first 2GB (chosen with trial and error) of the disk. That worked! So now I have a 40GB hdd with a 38GB partition and 2GB of unused (and probably unusable) space at the start. I'll live with that. Before I fill the hdd with stuff, I might try to see if I can make the first 2gb usable, but I'm not too worried. Thanks for all your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 If you do the DD it should fix this issue, just be careful EDIT: safest way is leave this as the only drive plugged in and boot from a linux CD, either LIVECD or recovery CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 Just tried the dd method from the Ubuntu CD. After dd'ing, I still couldn't format the whole disk: GParted reported an error when I tried (much the same as previous attempts). I think I'll give up the first 2GB or so as lost. Not bad seeing as I thought the whole disk was lunched this time yesterday! Thanks for the help though, much appreciated. I'll keep that dd utility in my back pocket for future reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Interesting indeed. What did DD output when you ran it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 dd seemed to run fine. It ran very quickly (less than 1/4 second to finish), and gave a 1-line report about how long it took and how many bytes were written (I think). Basically, what I would guess normal dd output would look like. I used /dev/zero for input instead of /etc/zero (I guess that was a typo ). I think GParted let me create an unformatted partition that covered the entire disk, but when I tried to format that partition, GParted gave an error (not detailed enough to diagnose the cause though). As an aside, I'm quite impressed with GParted. Seems much better than Partition Magic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 /dev/zero would be better yeah, been a while since I have had to do it myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I want to format my hard disk and I dont want to muck it up , is there a really easy how to guide somewhere that's actually good? I've seen a few and many have different methods? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted July 15, 2009 Author Share Posted July 15, 2009 What operating system do you currently use? Windows, Linux or something else? I'll assume it's Windows XP, and that the hard disk is the primary disk, i.e. the one that Windows has been installed on. I would use a Windows XP installation CD: boot up the PC so that it boots from the CD, and when it asks you where to install XP, you can ask it to delete any existing partition(s) and create a new one by re-formatting the disk. It will let you do all that before actually installing XP, so once it's finished re-formatting, you can quit the XP installation procedure. If any of that's not clear, I'm happy to expand on it further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 wow, thats easy, i'll give that a go cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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