Hard disk doesnt format any help possible before i throw it

[racer007]

Hi
I have 3 hdd's in my comp the smallest one is 120gb sata1 with 3 partitions
ST3120827AS. The problem is as follows i had winxp x64 on it on one part and partitonmagic and seagate disc wizard both showed a problem with it. on of them said something about a geometry problem i can t recall exactly what but like something wasnt expected to start at 14 or 15 but was supposed to be at 1 i think. I think the start of the disk may have a prob. I have my OS running on another drive and i have backed up all the stuff on another one a 320 gb and a 400 gb sata2. but when i try to format the first drive the 120gb drive it wont complete it and gives an error both in quick format and otherwise. also partition magic and seagate discwiz, dont give options to format it or remove partitions. Am i outta luck an should i just toss it. it has 2 other partititons that can be formatted just the first one doesnt. The os on it earlier was running ok without any problems.
i have on other different question.
both my 320 gb abd 400gb drives show as 298 gb and 372 gb in the OS is that normal?, or can i recover rest of the space.Thanks tons for any help that may be forthcoming.

[dobrevjetser]

Hi,

i would scan the first partition for bad sectors with mhdd; however, if there is no data in it, just try to remove it an then recreate it; then do a full format.

1 GB equals 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 1.073.741.824 whereas the manufacturers use 1.000.000.000,-. So 320 becomes 320 * 1000000000/1.073.741.824 =298 and 400 becomes 372.


Best regards,

Dobre

[racer007]

thanks will try