Hard Drive formatting issue

[psufan14]

Hello,
I have just installed windows pro 64 bit on a computer i just built from scratch. the windows install worked fine, all mobo and other drivers are installed and working correctly.

I have a 64gb SSD boot drive where windows is installed and working.

I went into computer management to initialize and format my HDD, but I am getting an error. I initialized the disk like normal, and went oformat using NTFS, and it took a long time but in the end it did not format. the disk shows up in comp mgmnt, but shows not initialized with a little red arrow pointing down next to it. I tried to reformat again, and virtual disk manager had a pop up error that says "The semaphore timeout period has expired."

Google shows it as a network issue where you are trying to transfer large files, but I am not transferring anything, just formatting a hard drive... does the bare drive tag have something to do with it?

My HDD:
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

 

[Chaz21]

Hello,
I have just installed windows pro 64 bit on a computer i just built from scratch. the windows install worked fine, all mobo and other drivers are installed and working correctly.

I have a 64gb SSD boot drive where windows is installed and working.

I went into computer management to initialize and format my HDD, but I am getting an error. I initialized the disk like normal, and went oformat using NTFS, and it took a long time but in the end it did not format. the disk shows up in comp mgmnt, but shows not initialized with a little red arrow pointing down next to it. I tried to reformat again, and virtual disk manager had a pop up error that says "The semaphore timeout period has expired."

Google shows it as a network issue where you are trying to transfer large files, but I am not transferring anything, just formatting a hard drive... does the bare drive tag have something to do with it?

My HDD:
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

If it's a new drive just do the "quick" format option. Bare means just that - no manual, cables, etc. It has no effect on formatting.

 

[psufan14]

Hello,
I have just installed windows pro 64 bit on a computer i just built from scratch. the windows install worked fine, all mobo and other drivers are installed and working correctly.

I have a 64gb SSD boot drive where windows is installed and working.

I went into computer management to initialize and format my HDD, but I am getting an error. I initialized the disk like normal, and went oformat using NTFS, and it took a long time but in the end it did not format. the disk shows up in comp mgmnt, but shows not initialized with a little red arrow pointing down next to it. I tried to reformat again, and virtual disk manager had a pop up error that says "The semaphore timeout period has expired."

Google shows it as a network issue where you are trying to transfer large files, but I am not transferring anything, just formatting a hard drive... does the bare drive tag have something to do with it?

My HDD:
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

isn't a full format recomended for a first install to make sure there are no bad sectors? I was able to hit format again, and it is trying to format it again. lets see if this works this time.

Is it possible intel smart response technology is interfering with the formatting of the HDD. I'm wondering if a BIOS setting is putting it into a RAID config which is throwing it off somehow... the regular HDD does show as a basic drive which means its not raid set right?

 

[Chaz21]

isn't a full format recomended for a first install to make sure there are no bad sectors? I was able to hit format again, and it is trying to format it again. lets see if this works this time.

Is it possible intel smart response technology is interfering with the formatting of the HDD. I'm wondering if a BIOS setting is putting it into a RAID config which is throwing it off somehow... the regular HDD does show as a basic drive which means its not raid set right?

Check your bios but I believe you'd have to actively set it to raid. I don't think it would do it on it's own. I know mine didn't. For a new drive a quick format is usually sufficient, specially since no os will be installed. Here's some intel data if you don't have it already - notice the "setup guide" section. If you did that it might be what is causing your problem.
http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/intel_smart_response_technology_user_guide.pdf

 

[scout_03]

this could help solve your issue http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/68631.aspx

 

[psufan14]

Check your bios but I believe you'd have to actively set it to raid. I don't think it would do it on it's own. I know mine didn't. For a new drive a quick format is usually sufficient, specially since no os will be installed. Here's some intel data if you don't have it already - notice the "setup guide" section. If you did that it might be what is causing your problem.
http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/intel_smart_response_technology_user_guide.pdf

ok, now no hard drives are showing in my BIOS under standard CMOS features. my SSD and HDD, and DVD drive used to show under IDE channel 0 master and slave, and channel 1 master. how could they have disappeared?

 

[scout_03]

disconnect the other drive and start with the ssd only

 

[psufan14]

intel rapid storage technology keeps popping up when I restart saying that my system is reporting errors with that hard drive. it asks me to reset the disk to normal, and when I do that the error clears, but i still cannot initialize the disk since I get the semaphore error again

 

[scout_03]

remove the hdd and try a windows repair on the ssd system think your on network drive check this http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21094630

 

[psufan14]

ok, a cold boot with just the SSD connected yields NO problems. Gets to the windows login screen in under 5 seconds. Intel rapid response technology works perfectly. Neither SSD nor DVD drive show up in BIOS anywhere that I can see though. how can is be recognized and it work perfectly, if it is not shown anywhere in BIOS? when I first went into BIOS after installing windows the HDD and SSD and DVD drive showed up, but now they are not there.

 

[scout_03]

now your in windows go to control panel and try auto detect new material under peripheral

 

[psufan14]

with the HD disconnected it won't show in there. I uninstalled the intel smart response technology and reconnected the HD. It did find the HD correctly, and it is initialized. I am now trying to format it. I'm using the quick format, about how long should it take to format a 500GB HD at 7200 RPM?

 

[scout_03]

10 to 20 minutes depend on system speed

 

[psufan14]

I'm starting to think that the HD is faulty. on startup I saw it listing the hard drives and it said below the HD that SMART command failed. I googled this, and most threads are split in the opinion that the SMART command is either the HD getting ready to fail, or its no big deal. However now when I go back into disk management to try to initialize and format the drive I am now getting an error from virtual disk manager that my request to initialize the disk could not be performed because of an I/O device error... Should I go to best buy and get a cheap small hard drive and see what happens when installing that one?

 

[scout_03]

use this to test the hdd Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows and the link http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&lang=en that will give you a code and if drive still under warranty you could ask for rma but if you buy a new one get the black series

 

[psufan14]

use this to test the hdd Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows and the link http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&lang=en that will give you a code and if drive still under warranty you could ask for rma but if you buy a new one get the black series

Thanks for the diagnostic tool, I ran both the smart test, which it failed, and the write zeros test, and I keep getting sector errors. it can't write zeros to many sectors. This is proof enough of a bad HD right?

 

[scout_03]

and if this one still under warranty ask rma from wd with the short test code

 

[Chaz21]

Thanks for the diagnostic tool, I ran both the smart test, which it failed, and the write zeros test, and I keep getting sector errors. it can't write zeros to many sectors. This is proof enough of a bad HD right?

If you check the reviews you'll see that this particular drive has not been the most reliable in WD's stable. If newegg will RMA it I'd do that. WD might rma it for you but they have been known to replace these drives with refurbished ones so be prepared for that possibility. Either way you bought a "bum" drive and you shouldn't be left holding the bag. Wish you luck.

 

[psufan14]

Best answer selected by psufan14.