Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (
More info?)
On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 07:08:52 +1000, "Rod Speed" <rod_speed@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>Discordia <goaway@you.net> wrote:
>> On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 05:40:18 +1000, "Rod Speed" <rod_speed@yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Discordia <goaway@you.net> wrote
>>>> Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> wrote
>>>>> Discordia <goaway@you.net> wrote
>>>
>>>>>> I tested a new USB external hard drive with Partition Magic's
>>>>>> Partition Info tool, and it reported that "Error #108. Partition
>>>>>> didn't end on cylinder boundary ucEndHead expected to be 254, not
>>>>>> 239". What's this mean? And should I return the drive. Its is a
>>>>>> rather noisy too.
>>>
>>>>> Thsi means PM is way behind the times. Hostorically HDDs were
>>>>> organised in Cylinders, Heads and Secors (CHS). At that time
>>>>> it was a good idea to have partitions end on a cylinder boundary.
>>>>> This time is over. Ignore the message. I has no meaning.
>>>
>>>> Thanks for the info. Now, PM itself says the drive is "BAD" and
>>>> won't do anything with it, like format it. Should I just ignore PM
>>>> altogether? And like I said, the drive is rather noisy, I can hear
>>>> the ticks as it seeks and much louder when its writing. Its a WD
>>>> 160gb drive, and I've used its Lifeguard Diagnostic tool to test it,
>>>> and it comes up as okay (no SMART test, of course, being an external
>>>> drive). Just ignore the noise and keep it?
>>>
>>> I'd return it and get a Samsung myself, much quieter.
>>>
>> This one is particularly cheap, for Canada that is. Its $99 after a
>> $70 rebate.
>>
>> Update: I wrote zeros to the drive, tried to reformat with XP NTFS,
>> and it stopped and didnt' work (vanished, actually). I then
>> downloaded the Western Digital formating utilities for their external
>> drives, and that worked (this is an Acomdate build external drive with
>> a WD drive inside). Anyway, after doing that its now a lot quieter.
>> I called Acomdate and they said I should return it. Not sure what to do?
>
>I'd return it. It shouldnt have gone missing and the noises
>could well have been the drive recalibrating on errors.
>
>I'd normally look at the SMART data myself, but its not a great
>idea to take it out of the case if you want to do a return.
>
Returned it. Got yet another (number 3). Exact same error in PM, but
this one is way quieter. Yes, I hear ticking when the drive is being
read or written to, but not from across the room. The place were I
bought it was sympathetic, could be a bad lot. Thinking of
reformating and keeping this one. I'll give it a day's use.