Cannot format hard disk

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Rickles

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#81949 20-Apr-2011 13:25

I have an external IDE hard drive (80GB) that I have been trying to reformat.

However, each time I try to partition and format it I get an error message "Some error occurred when writing partition chains on disk".

I have used a couple of disk utiliy programs to wipe the partion and recreate it, and the programs report the correct disk capacity, cylinders etc, but none will format (tried FAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and varying the cylinder sizes etc as some 'net searches suggest).

Further, scanning the surface and disk for defects reports NO problems at all !

Any suggestions please as to what may be going on here and how to remedy it?

Tks, R.

dontpanic42

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#460932 20-Apr-2011 13:51

What applications have you tried?
Have you tried using a bootable Gparted live linux disc?

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Rickles

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#460939 20-Apr-2011 13:56

Used HD Tune and EASUS.

Haven't tried Gparted though.

R.

Rickles

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#461214 21-Apr-2011 09:36

UPDATE: Used Partition Wizrad to completely wipe partition and overwrite entire disk (with zeros) ... operation completed perfectly with no errors.

Still cannot repartition or format?

Any suggestions folks?

R.

Bee

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#461244 21-Apr-2011 10:39

I would try it on a different PC? or a different usb port?

It certainly sounds like a faulty harddrive but perhaps its something faulty in the Case?

or maybe boot into Linux (Ubuntu?) and try to format it there???

Doing your best is much more important than being the best.

gzt

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#461284 21-Apr-2011 13:02

Yeah, put it on an internal IDE and work with it there. Also use GParted live booted from CDR to rewrite the partition table (there is a menu item for that) (MSDOS format if you are using windows). Accept all the GParted defaults when booting, it's easy.

Rickles

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#461437 21-Apr-2011 19:45

VICTORY - thanks guys, usingGParted did the job. Funnily enough, it would only format as FAT32 !

R.