Problems formating External HDD

J_B

So many questions!!

It worked fine when I was given it and it's sat under the desk with some data on it for about 9 (?) months

How can I test it outside the caddy?

How can I set it to 'master'?

I already have MiniPartitionWizzard - I asked it to format the disc but it wanted a 'label' - anyway, I pressed ok, but nothing seemed to happen.
Edit - pressed 'apply' and then something happened!



Edit - in MPW, I ran the 'surface test' and it reported - 'surface scan complete - 3816 errors found
But, following the format, it seems to be not finding any errors, although I do have another 28 minutes to go!!

aerostar

J_B wrote: »

So many questions!!

It worked fine when I was given it and it's sat under the desk with some data on it for about 9 (?) months

How can I test it outside the caddy?

How can I set it to 'master'?

I already have MiniPartitionWizzard - I asked it to format the disc but it wanted a 'label' - anyway, I pressed ok, but nothing seemed to happen.
Edit - pressed 'apply' and then something happened!



Edit - in MPW, I ran the 'surface test' and it reported - 'surface scan complete - 3816 errors found
But, following the format, it seems to be not finding any errors, although I do have another 28 minutes to go!!

If it has been sat under a desk - has it been kicked ! not the safest place.

Also some older discs dislike being left without being used - sometimes the disc refuses to rotate - though a couple of power downs and ups usually start it.

The jumpers are on the hard disk - usually a set of pins between the power connector and the 40way connector - pin positions of the jumper may be shown on the HD label.

However if it works in the caddy after you have formatted it then the jumper is/was in the correct position.

MPW will only commit to the operation you have selected when you click apply - when you select an operation it shows you where possible what the result should be - especially if changing partitions.

Label is just a name for the hard disc eg BKUP40GB, so it becomes easily identified when working with it.

Disc surface tests do take a loooooooooong time as the program is testing every byte on the disc.

J_B

Sorry about the delay in replying - been on a little 'jolly'

Anyway, I think the disc is FUBAR
Now it keeps popping up with 'Do you want to scan and fix disc E)

Whether I say yes (fix) or no (ignore) it will pop up again after a while.

Oh well

poppellerant

J_B wrote:

Edit - in MPW, I ran the 'surface test' and it reported - 'surface scan complete - 3816 errors found
But, following the format, it seems to be not finding any errors, although I do have another 28 minutes to go!!

Here lies your problem. The surface test has probably marked the 3,816 sectors as bad. So during the format, it's skipped the bad sectors and telling you it's found no more.

I'd destroy the harddrive and forget about it.

garynuman

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