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Is it possible to Format a partially formatted HDD??????

Forum Windows XP : Windows XP General Discussion - Is it possible to Format a partially formatted HDD??????

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roliva   10-27-2008 at 12:45:34 AM

Hello all. I am running Windows XP SP2. I got a new Seagate HDD 160GB and was doing a fresh install of XP. Everything was going well during formatting the new hard drive but at around 6% my power went out!!!

Now I tried to do the fresh XP install again, but when it tried to format again, there was an error stating hard disk may be damaged!!!

So my question if any are willing to offer suggestions, is the HDD shot or can it be repaired? It sucks that this happened to a brand new HDD. What actually does a partial format do to the sectors? Is this a physical damage?

Thanks all,
Romeo.

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br3nd064   10-27-2008 at 06:38:03 AM
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Chances are that it's not actually physically damaged, but XP just can't see it. Try using a 3rd-party format utility, such as Darik's Boot & Nuke.

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roliva   10-27-2008 at 04:46:07 PM
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Thanks! I'll give it a try.

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roliva   10-27-2008 at 06:48:56 PM
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Well, I tried Darik's Boot & Nuke but NO success! It didn't read my HDD. It read my 3.5" Floppy drive however and wanted to format that!! I don't know why it read my floppy drive?

Anyone else have suggestions?

Thanks.

Reply to roliva
pat mcgroin   10-27-2008 at 11:34:32 PM
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does it show a drive letter in windows explorer?
Or does it show up in disk management?
I cant tell you exactly where to find disk management in XP right now as I booted to Vista.
If in explorer it shows a drive letter drop into a command prompt and type
chkdsk ?: /f
the ? is the drive letter
It may well cough up a error message but could fix it enough to work correctly.
If not type format ?: and it may format it outside of the install process.
If all else fails you may need to redo the partition on the drive.
If your not familier with that write back and you will get advice on how to do it.

I seriously doubt that a power outage caused any damage. It just didnt format correctly and windows is having a hard time recognizing it.


Message edited by pat mcgroin on 10-27-2008 at 11:35:34 PM
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br3nd064   10-28-2008 at 01:24:22 AM
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Try installing it in a another computer as a storage drive and formatting it on that machine.

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