Hey all,

Apologies if i am in the worng section.

I have been having problems with a external HDD for a while now and have no idea what to do with it.

It is a 2.5" USB 500GB HDD.

It is currently formatted to FAT32. I cannot use windows to format this HDD at all. I have also tried to format it in DOS mode with no sucess. only way to format it is to use an image file. Can some tell me if this HDD is messed up or if there is a method. I have also taken the HDD out of the casing and put it into a laptop hoping i can format it by installing windows onto it. this didnt work either.

The HDD does work on FAT32 so its the the actual HDD so I am completely lost.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank

If I understand correctly, the data on this drive is not needed (since you're trying to format it). If you provide full, clear and unambiguous answers to these questions, it will help members to better understand your situation and therefore to make useful suggestions.


Are you having any problems at all reading or writing to the drive? Can you definitely add new files to the drive and read those same files?

Just to be clear, how many partitions are on this drive?

What version of Windows have you been trying to use, to format the drive?

I assume you're trying to format the drive as NTFS, as Windows itself wouldn't let you format a 500GB drive to FAT32 (although third-party utils can do that). Please confirm.


What exactly happens when you try to do this? What error message is displayed on the screen? Were you trying a quick or a full format? What error message(s) is/are logged in the Windows System event log when you try to do this?


Same 4 questions as previous point.


How did you create that image file in the first place? Is the image file that of a full disk (including MBR) or of a partition-only (excluding MBR)?


That eliminates the original USB enclosure as the source of the problem. If you remember, can you tell us whether the error message(s) were the same for this test, as when the drive was in that enclosure?


I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you mean by that comment - is there some link between FAT32 and the problem, based on your troubleshooting so far? Are there any other test results which you have got, but not mentioned so far, from any other troubleshooting that you've done?

Do you have the option to take that HDD to another PC and perform the same attempt to format it using Windows?

How did you first discover this problem? Can you remember anything unusual which happened between the last time you could successfully format the drive, and the first time that you couldn't?

Have you tried wiping / erasing (sometimes called "zero filling") the drive, and then formatting it?

Have you run the appropriate manufacturer diagnostic tool (e.g. WD DLG, Seagate SeaTools etc.) "long test" on the drive? If so, what was the result?

Have you collected the full SMART data (including raw attribute values) from the drive? If so, please attach the text file, or screenshot / photo of whatever GUI you used, containing the SMART data to your reply. Ideally, I would install smartmontools onto the PC, to be able to run "smartctl -x" and collect the drive's internal error log immediately after you've tried (and failed) to format the drive, but I don't know if that's something you can do.

Do you have any experience using Linux?

hey, thx for the reply, i will try and answer in detail.

I can read and write on the HDD. there is only 1 partition on the drive. I am using Win7 and have tried quick format and full format through windows (that is by right clicking on the drive symbol and then format). when doing a full format it keeps failing, furthest i got to was 11%. quick format also lasts forever and then will say format failed.

i have tried through CMD commands with same problems.

The image file that i use to format the drive to FAT32 is something that was provided. its called Symantec Ghost. it simply loads an image file onto the HDD. this deletes everything on the drive.

When I placed the HDD into a laptop for formatting with WinXP, it gets stuck on 20% and doesnt move for ages, i cant remember if an error msg came up or if i gave up on it, but i did try it a few times.

i have tried to format the HDD to ntfs several computers with same results.

I have not used any other software for trouble shooting as i dont know what to use, If you can provide me with any links that would be helpful.

thanks again

Sounds like your drive has some uncorrectable/unrelocatable bad sectors.

It really needs proper refurbishing, which for a single drive is not going to be viable.

You could try downloading and running MHDD on the drive and see if it will relocate the bad sectors.

At least it will tell you how many and where the bad sectors are when you run the scan.

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i just got this after trying a quick format through windows - Windows was unable to complete the format -

This msg was after 10-15 mins. there is error codes or anything else.

Thanks for that.

Given the gaps in the info available, there are many different possible approaches to try to understand the situation. I suggest that the easiest 3 things you can do to get further info are:

a) Collect the Windows Event Log data as I mentioned before, using a process like this:

Note the time. Try to do a full format of the "suspect" drive (e.g. via right-click, format, untick the "quick format" box) since you say that a full format fails (rather than hangs). *Be careful to choose the correct drive!* Then, after the format process fails, note the time again, go to the Windows Event Log viewer, select the System event log, and look for which events were logged between the two times that you noted.

I'm hoping that Windows will log some relevant events (i.e. errors) when the format process fails.

The equivalent Linux procedure is easier (in some ways) if you have Linux experience, but I didn't see an answer to my question about that.

b) Collect the full SMART data from the drive. There are several different utilities you can use. I rarely use Windows so I don't claim to have a big list of those utilities. Two possibilities include HDDScan (free & recommended) and HDD Sentinel (trial version). Probably easiest will be for you to display the full SMART data using one of those utilities. Then take a photo of the screen, or use Windows to capture a screenshot and convert that screenshot to a jpg - then attach the the jpg to your reply.

c) Tell us the make & model of the drive itself. Then go to the relevant manufacturer's website & download their diagnostic utility (as I mentioned before). These utilities can also include some SMART data display, but are generally weaker & less useful than the two utilities I mentioned above (e.g. they may not display all raw SMART attribute data). Run whatever read-only test that manufacturer's utility includes and report the result.

However, as I said, other approaches are also possible - I'm just trying to guess what is probably easiest for you. Good luck

Edited to add: I agree with pcimage about one likely cause of the behaviour, although I can think of another type of fault which would also cause it. I'm just trying to gather data to prove the hypothesis. It's up to you how much effort you want to go through, to understand your problem.