Problem with Maxtor and Norton

[calimer]

Well, I have written out my problem a ton of times so hopefully no one will mind if I send a clip of an e-mail. Bascially I'm working with a maxtor 80 gig hd, 2mb cache, model number 6y080L0. Here is my problem:

E-mail to maxtor:
"I recently purchased a maxtor HD (6y080L0) but it looks like there might be a problem with it, but I'm not quite sure. Here is the situation. I used the norton systemworks feature speed disk to defrag my HD. It kept running into an error however in a certain place on the HD (in the middle of my 40 gig partition), and said that it could run norton disk doctor to correct it. So I ran disk doctor to fix it, and diskdoctor said that it found areas of the HD that it couldn't read and converted the area (about half a meg) into a bad sector. Now, I just purchased the HD so it having a bad sector seemed quite odd, especially since I have worked with many HDs before and never had a bad sector. So I decided to check it out with partition magic. Partition magic could not find any errors, and when I used the advanced feature that checks to see if bad partitions are actually usable, it converted the bad partition back into a good one. However, running speed disk again resulted in the same error in the same spot, although I did not convert it back into a bad sector. Partition magic also told me that newer HDs are designed especially not to have bad sectors and to replace the HD if there is a bad sector. I decided to do a few tests and to see if the HD really did need to be returned. First, I ran the "advanced test" and "burn in" test with powermax and both tests certified it as "error free". Partition magic suggested running a surface test with scandisk to see if there were bad sectors so that's what I did. It too came up with no errors. So now I am quite confused as what to do. Are there any other tests that I could run that would tell me if I do infact have a faulty drive? It seems strange that only norton would find any errors on it. I would greatly appreciate any help, and I really don't want to have to return the HD if possible, but if it is in fact faulty then I don't really have a choice. Knowing whether it is in fact faulty or not is my main issue, so any help you can give me would be great. Thank you for your time."

They recommended that I did a low level format, so that's what I did and I still recieved the error. They asked me to call the tech line and I did, and it was concluded that the drive was fautly. I mailed the HD back, and got a new one yesterday. All I did was partition the HD, install windows, then install norton and once again the got the same error but with a different number for the cluster. Could it be something is wrong with norton? Do you know any other ways to test a HD besides powermax and scandisk?

That ends the e-mail I sent my friend. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
-calimer

 

[4Ryan6]

I use two nortons products, Ghost and Anti-virus, the system works full suite has given my friends so many problems that I wouldn't even consider using it, if you've run the PowerMax Diagnostics and it gave you a clean bill of health, what is it about system works that you feel you need to use? An excellent hardrive optimizer and highspeed defragging program is VoptXP, which works excellently with Maxtor Hardrives, I know because thats the drives I'm running. I seriously doubt you'd receive two faulty hardrives in a row, its not impossible, just highly unlikely.

<b><font color=purple>Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.</font color=purple></b>

 

[calimer]

Honestly, I don't really need system works at all. I was using speedisk to defrag my drives, but I'm not sure if it really is even an improvement over the windows disk defragger. The fact that it was finding errors though is what worried me. It does seem quite unrealistic that both drives would have errors, and ONLY norton detects these errors. Thanks for the heads up about that software, I will definitely check it out. Hopefully others will come forward with the same problem as me, because if it really is a problem with norton, this can be an isolated incident. Thank you so much for your feedback and input. Take care.
-calimer

 

[4Ryan6]

You can try VoptXP for free for a 30 day trial at <A HREF="http://www.goldenbow.com" target="_new">http://www.goldenbow.com</A> if you're interested.

<b><font color=purple>Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.</font color=purple></b>

 

[Teq]

Norton is some of the most system invasive and bug riddled code on the market.

If you want defrag that doesn't screw up use the windows native proggy. It does as good a job as any.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[VelocityPimp]

what version of systemworks are you running? Also what operating system.

 

[calimer]

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who has replied to this post. I really appreciate your input and advice. I'm really glad to hear that it most likely is norton that is the problem, because I really did not want to have to return the HD twice. To answer velocitypimp, I used both norton systemworks 2000 and 2002 and both had the same problem. I'm using Windows 98 SE. I'm perfectly happy not using norton as my defragger, my main worry was if something was actually wrong with the drive. I'm surprised more people haven't said anything about having same the problem as me if it really is the norton software that's bugging. Thank you all again for your time and feedback.
-calimer

 

[Teq]

Next time you find yourself in the position of formatting that partition on your hard disk, use the following command:

<b>FORMAT <drive> /U /C /Z:32</b>

<drive> = C: D: E: etc.

/U = unconditional format, wipes everything out clean.

/C = check and recover bad allocation units.

/Z = number of 512byte disk sectors per allocation unit (fat32 only)


Other hidden hard disk goodies in win98's FORMAT:

/V:<label> = label for the drive.

/S = copy the operating system from the boot drive.




--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[calimer]

Well, I got a fun little update. I finally got the chance to do a thorough scan of my D partition (my C has windows on it, and my D takes up the rest of the space) and guess what, scandisk found bad sectors on my hard drive. I first tried to repartition the HD to make an E partition (one that covered the bad spot) so I could do a format on it but partition magic can't do it because of "lost clusters" I did a normal scandisk on it again and it couldn't find any errors. I tried to use the "error check" on partition magic and it found too many errors to list them all and also it offered to fix none of them. Then I tried using the partition magic feature where it checks bad sectors to see if they are good, and it made the bad sectors good again. However, I still can't do things on partition magic with partition D such as resize it, check its info, and check its errors. Any ideas? I've already done one low level format on this drive and I really don't want to do another one and I don't even know if that would really help. Any ideas? Thank you for your time.
-calimer

 

[calimer]

I finally finished a full thorough scandisk of my HD last night, and it came up with bad sectors. I wanted to put the part of the HD with the bad sectors on it’s own partition but partition magic wouldn’t let me because of “lost clusters” scandisk didn’t find anything wrong, so I decided to do a defrag. Defrag erred and caused me to lose over 1.7 gigs of info. I was able to make a new partition though with the bad clusters on it. Partition magic found the clusters usable and made them good again. I did a format on the partition (using format e: /U/C) and then tried to do a thorough scandisk of the drive overnight. Unfortunately my neighborhood had a power failure so the scandisk was completely wasted. I checked my A+ book and it recommended using a program called spinrite but that program didn’t help because it kept erring. I’m trying to do another scandisk on my E partition right now. I definitely don’t want to have to return this HD, again. Also, I think partition magic destroyed some of my files when I shrank the D partition to make the E partition (some of my text files were filled with an with an unfamiliar code). Is my hard drive possibly defective once again, or clearly defective? If the scandisk turns up more bad sectors, should I return the HD? I already did a low level format once on this drive, I don't really want or think it would help to do another. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
-calimer