EMERGENCY-Hard Disk CPR!!!!!!

[Aarmenaa]

I have a 30 GB ATA 100 hard disk. I recently decided to destroy the partitons, and rearrange them as 1 large partition. That all went well, but now I cannot format the dirve! It gets to 24% then gives an error message (printed below). The drive does have damaged sectors (not quite sure from where), but it should be able to format right over those right? I have tried different command switches for formatting the drive. I am using the standard MS-DOS format utility.

Error Message for format C:
==============================================
A:\format C:

WARNING ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK
DIRVE C: WILL BE LOST!

Proceed with format (y/n)?y


Formatting 29,31.88M
Trying to recover allocation unit 453,533 <-this is the bad part
==============================================
End error message

Please help! If the dirve does not format, I do not have a drive to replace it with, so it will be a dead computer!

The drive is an IBM Deskstar.

-Aarmenaa

[jmichna]

Go to your IBM HD manufacturer's website and download their "drive fitness" utility. IBM's is called "Drive Fitness Test."

This is a HD utility program that will test, and map out as bad, defective sectors of your hard drive, in essence "repairing" the bad sectors so that the drive is once again usable. All drives are manufacured with "extra sectors" so that you will still get the rated capacity even after some sectors are marked out.

If you had been experiencing other problems (like I did with an IBM "DeathStar" 75GXP 30gb drive... making chirping/cricket noises), the drive is on its way out. DFT will buy you some time, but it will eventually fail (I got about another 7-8 months)

Good luck,
jmichna

[Aarmenaa]

It has not made any funny noises, except when it is formatting and comes up with that error. Then, the drive goes mad for about 10 seconds and makes really loud, unique sound. Is this a problem?

-Aarmenaa

PS. Thanks-I'll try your suggestion.

[otheos]

All drives are manufacured with "extra sectors" so that you will still get the rated capacity even after some sectors are marked out.

This is an internal process. When you see bad sectors in the file system it means you ran out of the "extra sectors" that for IDE drives are very few anyway.

Run DFT first and see what it says. If the bad sectors are recoverable (software generated) then no problem, if they are just marked out as bad, time to RMA. However I'm sure IBM only warranties for 1year (not 3 like Maxtor) so your SOL. All is going to happen next is for these bad sectors to start multiply. I wouldn't put any sensitive data on the disk.

BTW a 30GB IBM? chances are it's an 75GXP and these are notorious for bad sectors (head crush).

Oh and when you buy a new drive, stay away from IBM.

Sorry :(

[Aarmenaa]

I didn't choose this drive. It came as part of a pre-made custom system. My dad purchased the computer. If I had known the drive was IBM, I would not have purchased the system.

I do not know where the bad sectors came from, but I do know that they still exsisted after the bad sectors table was wiped out, so they are physical damage. I'm putting my money with you guys-the drive's dead. Thanks to all! :t

-Aarmenaa