error when formatting - invalid media reading drive C

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

<q_q_anonymous@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1115227160.279265.138620@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...

> was playing with a sector editor, figured i can't do permanent damage.

Correct.

> was experimenting. none of the datda on the hdd is important.
> I thought that fdisk and with its mbr switch, and format, would
> be able to rewrite the bytes that count.

Its simpler to just write zeros thru the first few hundred tracks if
you do manage to produce a problem with something like clearhdd.

> i wrote a boot record from a floppy disk onto the hdd. - i.e.
> replaced the first 512 bytes. then i lost access to all my files
> on that hdd - fair enough. so I used fdisk removed the partition,

That isnt going to affect the boot code in the MBR.

> recreatred it made it active, rebooted, tried to format it (A:\>format c: /s)
> and I got an error "invalid media reading drive c abort rety fail"

Presumably it got rather confused about the geometry
detail etc in the MBR that came from a floppy.

> So I aborted. I did fdisk /mbr. Then I tried format c: /s again,
> got the same error, did 'f' for fail and it let me format it. I
> shoudln't get that error before formatting though.

You likely still have the useless geometry detail in the MBR.

> it's an excelstor hdd (i.e. a rubbish hdd), they don't have any
> utilities on their site for download. but i'm hoping that free 3rd
> party software has a solution. there was a mention of norton disk
> doctor fixing it on usenet, but no further information was give

Wipe it with clearhdd, that will fix it.
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities...

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

thanks, that's a great utility, i've added it to my useful programs

though, i found that the problem was with the ide cable. I changed the
cable and it was fine. The old cable was technically good - 18" and 80
way but visually imperfect - a tiny speck of coating had been scraped
off exposing a few mm of copper wire.

Regarding utilities, which utilities made by one HDD manufacturer work
on drives of any manufacturer? (besides samsung's clearhdd) I have
heard for example, that maxtor have some good utilities, but obviously
i wouoldn't want to buy a maxtor drive!

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

hmm, i testd again. seems like now i still get the error even with the
perfect ide cable. I ran clearhdd then fdisk then format.

doesn't matter. i just press f a few times and it lets me format it.

thanks for the info

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

<q_q_anonymous@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1115296582.034771.92080@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

> i found that the problem was with the ide cable. I changed
> the cable and it was fine. The old cable was technically good
> - 18" and 80 way but visually imperfect - a tiny speck of coating
> had been scraped off exposing a few mm of copper wire.

Likely the force required to do that dislodged one of the
connections to one of the wire in one of the connectors.

> Regarding utilities, which utilities made by one HDD manufacturer
> work on drives of any manufacturer? (besides samsung's clearhdd)

Many hard drive manufacturers do have
a ute that writes zeros thru the drive.

> I have heard for example, that maxtor have some good utilities,

I dont care for them myself.

> but obviously i wouoldn't want to buy a maxtor drive!

Me neither. But thats because they dont provide
local warranty support in my country, the drive has
to be shipped to singapore for a warranty claim.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

<q_q_anonymous@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1115315661.469843.91670@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

> hmm, i testd again. seems like now i still get the error even with
> the perfect ide cable. I ran clearhdd then fdisk then format.

> doesn't matter. i just press f a few times and it lets me format it.

That's a real worry. Run Hitachi's DFT
and Seagate's diagnostics on the drive.

> thanks for the info

No problem, thanks for the feedback, too rare in my opinion.