FORMAT ERROR!!! What can I do?

[JAY. BEA.]

I keep getting a error that say
Invalid media or track 0 bad disk unusable
format terminated.
A:\
?
Is my HDD bad or
can I get Around this some how?

[buitenb]

do you have the right system disk ?if you want to format a disk wich is partitioned
as FAT 32 with a FAT 16 startupdisk then
you havea problem so startup from floppy
and start FDISK and look at your partitons
if there is no partition create one
that should do the trick !!

otherwise throw the hd into the joint !

[BBA]

Just run "fdisk /mbr" If that doesn't allow your disk to format, you may need to low level format the disk because this could be a hardware issue and sometimes a LLF can revive it.

If it seems to work you will need to re-establish partitions.

Now you can run fdsik and delete any partitions (even any "Non-Dos" partitions like NTFS or UNIX...eek! ) and then set new ones. Hopefully you are using a boot disk from the OS you plan to install. If you want FAT32 and you are using a Win98 or late issue Win95 boot disk, just answer yes to enable large disk support when you enter fdisk or you will have a fat16 drive. Otherwise you will have FAT16.


BBA


[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 07-11-99).]

[Underclocked]

Since you obviously still have internet capability, download the troubleshooting program from your hard drive's vendor. Most have them and most will attempt to fix minor hard drive problems. Also, most allow writing all 0s to the drive.
If it's a WD, their WDDiag will work quite well, although sometimes can be slow going.

[JAY. BEA.]

I tried the "fdisk /mbr" And It did not work.
However,I looked at previous topics and found
something on LLF,my HD is a "Conner" which is now "Seagate", downloaded the file "SGATFMT4.EXE" tried to load it and I kept getting a error message, C:\ "drive not writing" Abort,Retry,Fail. Put a Old 1.2G
HD and "BINGO". Everything went fine.
put the first back in and, all the suggestion
just doesn't seems to work, created the partitions and nothing. I Can open the LLF progam. What can I do??????

?
A. Is the HD "BAD"
B. Should I buy A new one
C. Can I fix It
D. Is there's hope for the HD

THANX http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif


?
is the HD bad ?
OR ????

Thanks To everyone http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by JAY. BEA. (edited 07-11-99).]