Hello,

This is a simplistic question but it involved using HDD Guru Low Level format routine to wipe and reformat a disk.

I used the HDD Guru LLFormat routine on a 1Tb Seagate Baracuda. Then to make sure I had formatted with the exact specs of NTFS on my computer I used the NTFS routine from Administrator tools in Windows 7 on the new target drive. All was ok to there. But before I installed the operating system the drive is not found. It showed drive not initialized.

What did I miss in this setup?

The HDD in question is seen by the BIOS but not with a Windows 7 disk loaded to examine the computer contents.

I have Seatools cd's from other drive purchases. Is there something on that needed?

What exactly do you mean by "NTFS routine from Administrator tools" ?

When you connect the disk to a machine with Windows 7, does it appear in Disk Manager ?If it shows as initialized there, for that windows installation to see/use the disk you would need to partition and format it there.

When you boot from an install disk for Windows 7, does it finds the disk ?

I will have to review partitioning then. What I intended to do in Win7 Disk Management is simply format the whole volume with NTFS to prepare for the eventual install of a fresh disk with Win7 on it-- nothing else.

The job showed to complete as an NTFS volume.

Did you load drivers for the disk controller using F6?

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Since I am so rusty at doing any of this I am rerunning HDD Guru LLF and from there will use the Win7 setup disk which should prompt for F6 when needed.

I botched the Disk Management way in assigning drive letter D and LLF submitted an error in formatting in it's scan before running.

There's time to play around with this for me. I don't know why I'm in this bad patch. The disk is an old Seagate 320 so no large size drive errors should apply.

I have my Seatools disk handy as well.

I'll report anything found in Crystal Disk Info after this LLF completes.

Which 1 is it ?

First initialize the drive then format.

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Sistrum Data Recovery
http://www.sistrum.mk/en

This is a mysterious issue as a stand alone event. What is the magic wand to initialize?

I've been slow to respond and update this to say that I finally just ran win7 setup and without a prompt for F6 (probably an XP feature only, ) I got the drive recognized.

I can't remember where precisely, but during an error of a clone backup which failed (due to not enough room using Norton Ghost) Win 7 asked if I wanted to do a quick format in a dialog box outside of the administrative tools. That was quick and painless, but I don't know how to invoke that pop up box to do the action.

Perhaps initialize is on Seatools? I didn't explore that way of doing it but for anyone reading here that is a proper tool for setup of an out of box Seagate.

If you get the drive recognized by the win7 boot disk, then when you install win7 in it the setup routine will format the drive.

If you want to format the drive in other machine, open Disk Manager, accept the prompt to initialize the disk if it shows up. Then find your disk, right click on it, then create a new partition of the desired size. This partition you can then format .

But for installing a fresh instalation of Win7, you do not need to format the disk beforehand.

Thanks. I am more familiar with the routine now.

A hat tip to HDD Guru for the Low Level Format program.