Reformatting Problem?

Question

This has never happened before I am doing a reformat on an oldie, 40GB HD, 128MB ram, Dell. After running the boot disk and format C, and yes to format, the format process got up to 8 per cent then says Not Ready---Format terminated. Whats up with that? Did it again, this time it stayed at zero, then gave the same message. Fried hard drive?

Answer 1

This is not my answer, found it in a forum... Here it is...
hmmm

looks like damage.

put smartdrv.exe on the boot floppy
from DOS
lh smartdrv
scandisk C: /nosave /autofix /surface

when that finished, it may have marked the bad spot.
then format C: /U
if it still hangs at 29%

you's in for tricks

assume the drive is 4.3GB
4.300.000.000 / 2 to the thirtieth
4,004GB

29% is
1,1613GB

make first partition 31%
make another one of rest
make the logical (all of extended)
make the logical ACTIVE
delete the 31% primary partition
make a new one of 27%
exit

REBOOT

format D: /U
yes first do D:
(where it starts may still be bad space)
if D: was healthy and formatted
then format C:
this shows you how to skip a bad part on drive...

we once made a drive work that way...

of course, the drive manufactor may have drive diagnostic tools.
and these would be the tool of choice...

------------------
edited...
that REBOOT is important
after FDISK REBOOT
and after formating, REBOOT

Answer 2

I've run in to the same problem before until i once discovered that whatever you store in the computer it stays there permanently unless you format it 100% at least 8 times before you decide to store anything back in it that's why sometimes even if your computer had a virus and you formatted it then less then a month later the computer starts acting all weird because whatever you store in the computer it stays there unless you format it 8 times!!!

for example the first format of a 25GB drive took me 20 minutes second format took me 18 minutes 3rd format took me 17 minutes by the time i reached the 8th format it took only 11 minutes to format! BECAUSE IT MaKES CRYSTAL CLEAR SENSE THAT THE MORE YOU FORMAT IT THE MORE CLEAR AND FAST THE DRIVE AND THE COMPUTER WILL BE!

Answer 3

Yeah it sounds like a bad drive. Here are a couple things to try.

Go into the BIOS and disable any built-in virus protection. This may be stopping you from overwriting the Master Boot Record.

Run fdisk and see if you can delete all the partitions and recreate it as one big partition.

Maybe a quick format would bypass the errors. Try format /q

Answer 4

Don't use 'right click' and 'Format' directly on the Drive C:. This will definitely give you errors. You need more authoriy, so if you have 'Command Prompt' use it. It will override all errors and ignore all problems not related to its command. Once you're in 'Command Prompt', type in this command, 'format c:' (without including the apostrohpe). 'Command Prompt', will terminate the command and begin Formatting. It will show details. Do not leave the Command Prompt alone, just watch it carefully as it terminates. It might ask a question to continue or something.

Answer 5

Try Fdisk the partition table may be corrupt