Need help with my HDD

P

Plasticmonkey

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Hi guys

So I have been having trouble with my PC the last few days. Operations freeze for no apparent reason, and my PC takes like 5min to startup.
I decided to do a format this moring, thought it would solve all my problems, boy was I wrongg.

I have a seagate 1000gb SATAII HDD. The HDD s partitioned into one 50gb drive (for XP) and one 950gb (for the rest)
This morn when I tried to format, something very wierd happened. Apon booting from my XP cd, setup refused to delete my XP partition. It said, "cannot delete partition"
I tried running setup like 8 times with the same result. :confused:
Ive also tried fiddeling with the sata cables, using other ones, as I thought it might be the cable that was faulty-no luck.
The HDD is in an excelent condition, placed in a well ventelated box. I ran S.M.A.R.T the other day, and my HDD came back 99% fine.

I tried putting the HDD in another PC, to format the xp drive via computer management. Windows can see the disk, its there, but each time I try to format, it says "format failed"

How can I fix my problem???
Is there any other apps that Might help me to format this drive?
Please guys, im not too keen to lose close to 1000gb worth of stuff, so please help!!!!
 
Last edited:
Plasticmonkey said:
Hi guys

So I hae been having trouble with my PC the last few days. Operations freese for no apparent reason, and my PC takes like 5min to startup.
I decided to do a format this moring, thought it would solve all my problems, boy was I worng.

I have a seagate 1024gb SATAII HDD. The HDD s partitioned into one 50gb drive (for XP) and one 950gb (for the rest)
This morn when I tried to format, something very wierd happened. Apon booting from my XP cd, setup refused to delete my XP partition. It said, "cannot delete partition"
I tried running setup like 8 times with the same result. :confused:
Ive also tried fiddeling with the sata cables, using other ones, as I thought it might be the cable that was faulty-no luck.
The HDD is in an excelent condition, placed in a well ventelated box. I ran S.M.A.R.T the other day, and my HDD came back 99% fine.

I tried putting the HDD in another PC, to format the xp drive via computer management. Windows can see the disk, its there, but each time I try to format, it says "format failed"

How can I fix my problem???
Is there any other apps that Might help me to format this drive?
Please guys, im not too keen to lose close to 1024gb worth of stuff, so please help!!!!
Click to expand...

Run Fdisk
 
how can you have a 50gb partition for xp and ANOTHER 950gb partition on just 1tb sata drive when in actual fact it only gives u a max of 931gb storage capacity?
 
Lord Fubar said:
how can you have a 50gb partition for xp and ANOTHER 950gb partition on just 1tb sata drive when in actual fact it only gives u a max of 931gb storage capacity?
Click to expand...

Stop wasting your time on something that does not exist.:D
 
Lord Fubar said:
how can you have a 50gb partition for xp and ANOTHER 950gb partition on just 1tb sata drive when in actual fact it only gives u a max of 931gb storage capacity?
Click to expand...

Its 50gb for windows and something like 879gb for the rest. I rounded the figures
 
Superior said:
k, make sense now. Run fdisk and delete all partion and create a new one?
Click to expand...

All partition? as in Everything? ATM that isnt really an option, as I will lose 900gb+ worth of work, ect.
Is it possible to run fdisk on just the "xp" partition?
 
Also, with a drive that big, partitioned in that way, you're shortening it's life span.
 
You can try Acronis Disk Director - will let you create a rescue CD that you can use to boot and bypass the HDD installation of XP/Vista - that way, you should be able to either delete or format the 50GB partition without affecting the other partition. You can then create a new one in it's place and try to reinstall the O/S again...

I would re-look at your partitioning though - maybe get another smaller 80/160GB HDD only for the Operating System and keep your 1TB drive intact for data... just a thought... 80GB HDD's go for around R350 + VAT and 160's for around R450 + VAT - not too expensive these days...
 
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I Am Absolutely CLUELESS with fdisk? can someone maybe give me step by step instructions, on what to do??
 
Plasticmonkey said:
I Am Absolutely CLUELESS with fdisk? can someone maybe give me step by step instructions, on what to do??
Click to expand...

Dude, if you use FDISK without knowing what you're doing, you will lose all your data, on both partitions. Rather don't mess around with it unless you know what your doing, or want to lose everything.

Also, if your HDD is formatted at NTFS (which most these days are), then FDISK will not help you much - you can only delete the partitions, but cannot format them as NTFS...
 
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