I am using HDD Low Level Format to reformat a 250GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external Hard Drive. How ever when the formatting reaches 20% I get an error saying the device has been unplugged. I'm pretty sure this is because the device has been wiped as I have to initialise the drive to make the HDD Low Level Format register that is has been plugged in.

Is this deliberate? Is the program working and I just have to initialise the drive myself? Or is this an error?

Any help would be appreciated.

There is always confussion about low level format. Low level format is done from the SA of the HDD using factory commands. Software such as this formats the HDD but low level format is to restore the HDD back to factory settings. I have never used this software before so I can not tell you if it uses the modules in the SA of the HDD and actually does a true low level format of the HDD.

If you have issues in this HDD download MHDD and do a zero fill and test the sectors of the HDD to see how many bad sectors are on your HDD that need to be remapped to the Glist so the drive can work. This is a good software package and a good one to test your HDD with it.

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Iorana Haraharaini

@Cathrinerose,

The behaviour you describe is abnormal and suggests a problem with the disk.

If you explain the original situation / symptoms, which led you to deciding to try this action, then this may help us to better understand what is happening.

Also, gathering the full, raw SMART data from the disk (e.g. using HDDScan) would help to provide some info about the disk's view of its own health.

I chose to low level format when a regular format to fix cyclic redundancy errors kept failing due to bad sectors. I don't know what was causing the behaviour, but after I ran quick wipe and then turned the computer off and turned it back on again it has now formatted properly.

Thanks for the info.

It's not clear to me if you're planning to stop investigating now or not. Based on your earlier comments, there are signs of a deeper problem with the disk, which you may have temporarily masked, but which could recurr. It's up to you whether you're going to investigate that further (which I recommend), or take a risk using that disk for storing data.

you should check cable HD because it's poblems to make unplugged power ok