hello, I have a WD 400GB hard drive in an external case with a USB connection. I think the cables might have become loose or something (?), but at some point the computer became unable to read the drive (showed directories and sub-directories as empty, no files inside). I tried a couple different things to fix it after I had transferred the contents with a file recovery program. (replaced the cables, chkdsk, attempted to reformat, etc.). It's never made any bad noises, and it's usually visible on Windows Explorer and Disk Management (Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage). But I can't get it to format.

After reading up on this, it seems as though it needed a low-level format to remap non-physical bad sectors. So I ran HDD Low Level Format Tool. The program completed and indicated that it had successfully performed the low level format. It also said that the drive would need to be reformatted and partitioned. So, I tried to reformat it with Windows Explorer and Disk Management and, again, it says that it's unable to format the drive. So I'm a little confused. Just trying to figure out how it could successfully be low-level formatted, but still unable to be high-level formatted?

Try to use another enclosure or plug it in directly to a pc. No need to do low level format really. Just use windows computer manager to remove partition and make a new one.
Or search for EASUS Parition Manager- home version is free - if you struggle with windows computer manager

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boy, that was quick thanx.
So you think it's the wire harness inside the external case? I had replaced the usb cable on the outside, but I didn't replace the inside harness (ie. try a different case, or load internally) yet. I'll give it a shot. I suppose that probably should have been my first thing to troubleshoot! Hope I didn't mug it all up for nothing

Well, I switched it into a new HDD enclosure. It still appears as a "healthy" drive, according to Disk Management, and it allows me to create a partition. But I can't do anything with it until I perform a high-level format, and it won't let me do that. I ran the low level format again, just for the heck of it, and it still lets me complete that. I should have mentioned before though, both times it gave me numerous "format error occurred at offset xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx" messages. More than I can count, probably several hundred. Does that mean it's toast? - s

It's only academic now, but try one of these SMART diagnostic tools. Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows / Linux):
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:
http://hddscan.com/

WD's Data Lifeguard diagnostic should also find lots of bad sectors. You may need to run it if you intend to make a warranty claim.

Thanks for the reply. It's an old drive, I was just hoping to salvage it. I do have a quick question though, if you don't mind. Given what I had mentioned before; ie.: disk is recognized by windows, windows says it's "healthy", is able to create a partition, doesn't make any noises... but won't format and gives all these errors in low-level format; do you think that there is physical damage, or is it still non-physical damage (and if so, can that ever be fixed)? I guess I was just figuring that if it was non-physical damage, regardless of how much damage was done, that there ought to be a way to overwrite it/remap it and fix it.

Oh - you never metnion the low level format reported several hundered bads you cheeky

It will show up healthy and treayd to partition because windows thinks the drive is ok- read the hdd info and hdd reaports ready state. But when you try to format or partition it will freeze because of bad sectors- if it freezez at this point - then you will struggle to create a partition at all as there might be bads at the begginging. Did you do the SMART check mentioned higher?

What you can do is do a HDD Scan using HDD San for windows 3.2 (off hirens) and if you can scan the drive using this crappy software then you will have a chance to create and OFFSet partition and use the healthy portion of the drive - but if the scan reports bad sectors from LBA 1 - then bin the drive - you cant remap mbr sectors and fs sectors.

Let know what happens

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Yah, I guess I missed that important piece there.. sorry

Obviously, I'm a little novice here, just know enough to get myself in trouble. But since the drive is old, mucked up, and I already transferred the data, I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I'll try the S.M.A.R.T. thing. I believe HDDScan only works on internal drives. I was hoping to leave this drive external.... mostly 'cause when stuff like this happens and I open the PC, then karma usually makes more bad things happen
If I understand correctly, it sounds like the damage may still be non-physical, but if damage occurs to the MBR sectors, even non-physical damage, it still can't be fixed (?)

HDD Scan works on USB drives with no problem - jsut runs a bit slower - make sure to plug youre drive in first then run hddscan and select your USB drive- will have a usb icon.
Do a verify test and see what happens - the beginning is crucial - you need that be clean..

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sorry, I was thinking of another program. I can see my drive available on HDD Scan. I'll give it a shot.
Can I ask you a quick question, if you are familiar with this program? Does it actually show it performing any action? I selected "verify", and added it as a test. It immediately began "executing", but it hasn't yet shown anything else.
Will the report of bad sectors show up after it has executed the test?
Thanks again for all your help!!

the report says:
open disk
test: VR-verify

Executing
Bad block found, start LBA : 32512
Bad block found, start LBA: etc (this continues for about 30 or 40 blocks, and then it says block start at...)

I'm not sure if this means that a bad block was found at 32512, or if a bad block was found at 1 and it trys to restart reading at 32512? I'm assuming the former, because on the map, it shows white blocks on LBA 0-20736, and the blue/bad blocks don't start until LBA 20992

Yo - Well you dont have damage on LBA 0 - and the fact that you did an entire verify scan and the hdd did not freeze of stop responding is good.
And the bads are somewhere on the beggining of the drive only.

Is the 274 Bads all in one area?
If yes - then use EASUS Partition manager for home users and create a new partition starting at 50GB upto ENDOF DRIVE- Leave the first 50GB empty with no partition no format just empty nothing. Apply the settings and format the new parition. You will be able to use the drive normaly (bear in mind that the drive has damage and could just fail without notice! dont the only copies of your firends wedding photos on there! - Back in the day working as a techi in computer shop i save allot of people buying new HDD this way and only a few failed - years later...)

If NO- then dont bother parititoning it at all - its possible the platters are degrading or bad quality and you will start to develop more and more bads until the drive stops. dont use it

Please remember that what you are doing is at your own risk and its NOT A FIX just a temporary workaround

PS Gurus- did you notice this looks very similar to a servo scan option in a specific data recovery equipment.. makes me wonder.

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That is the easiest way of doing it.
If you dont want to loose the 50gb space and dont want to worry about how to partition your drive you can use MHDD's kill dead sectors - it is more complicated to do it but the outcome is that when you run that windows hdd scan it wont show any bad sectors any more on a fully partitioned drive. even though there are there- remember though that doing that is easier than undoing it.
this is good and keeps your data tight - but letting the hdd store data next to these bad blocks can excite the cluster and cause it to further deteriorate and spread--- or not.. that is the question.

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