Problem formatting Hitachi hard disks

paulie128 · 04-21-2005, 04:40 AM

Hello everone. I really hope you can help me with this because it is driving me insane!

I recently bought two Hitachi 7k250 SATA drives (80gb) which I connected to my Athlon XP nforce 2 system (based around a Leadtek WinFast K7nCR18D PRO motherboard) via a SiL 3112 2-channel Raid contoller.

Everything went fine. The 3112 installed fine, I set up a striped RAId array, Windows booted happily. Everthing checked out. So I went to the device manager to intialise and format the drives. This is where the problems started.

Although Windows could see the new drive, let me intialise it, but whe I tired to partition it and format it, it failed: It would get to 99% and fail. The same happened using format command at the command prompt. Worried, I deleted the RAID array and tried to format each disk separetly. Both failed in exactly the same way several times.

I downloaded Hitachi disk checking utility which said both disks were fine, so I am now stumped. My Windows XP is completely up to date as are all my drivers (especially 3112 and BIOS on my Leadtek WinFast K7nCR18D PRO motherboard).

Why can I not format these disks? I am at my wits end since hours of trawling forums has not helped.
Any ideas? Would using another hard disk utility, e.g. Disk Genius or Partition Magic 8, help (although i'd rather not spend the money)?

All responses will be greatly appreciated.

dai · 04-23-2005, 12:16 PM

i am not up on raid plenty on it here
http://www.google.com/search?q=how+t...utf-8&oe=utf-8

**johnwill** · 04-23-2005, 01:04 PM

Try formatting one in a non-RAID configuration.

paulie128 · 04-25-2005, 08:21 AM

Johnwill,

Tried that (with both disks). No joy whatsoever. Both failed in smae way so nothing to with RAID array.

I am at a loss now as to what to do and am waiting for Hitachi support to get back to me.

paulie128 · 04-25-2005, 09:45 AM

Hitachio have just got back to me. There advice is:

"Use the Erase Disk utility from our Drive Fitness Test program to
completely wipe the drive, restoring it to manufacturing state."

I'll give it a go and report back what happens. Fingers crossed.

04-21-2005, 04:40 AM	#1 (permalink)
paulie128 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3 OS: winxp	Problem formatting Hitachi hard disks Hello everone. I really hope you can help me with this because it is driving me insane! I recently bought two Hitachi 7k250 SATA drives (80gb) which I connected to my Athlon XP nforce 2 system (based around a Leadtek WinFast K7nCR18D PRO motherboard) via a SiL 3112 2-channel Raid contoller. Everything went fine. The 3112 installed fine, I set up a striped RAId array, Windows booted happily. Everthing checked out. So I went to the device manager to intialise and format the drives. This is where the problems started. Although Windows could see the new drive, let me intialise it, but whe I tired to partition it and format it, it failed: It would get to 99% and fail. The same happened using format command at the command prompt. Worried, I deleted the RAID array and tried to format each disk separetly. Both failed in exactly the same way several times. I downloaded Hitachi disk checking utility which said both disks were fine, so I am now stumped. My Windows XP is completely up to date as are all my drivers (especially 3112 and BIOS on my Leadtek WinFast K7nCR18D PRO motherboard). Why can I not format these disks? I am at my wits end since hours of trawling forums has not helped. Any ideas? Would using another hard disk utility, e.g. Disk Genius or Partition Magic 8, help (although i'd rather not spend the money)? All responses will be greatly appreciated.

04-23-2005, 12:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,702 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	i am not up on raid plenty on it here http://www.google.com/search?q=how+t...utf-8&oe=utf-8 __________________

04-23-2005, 01:04 PM	#3 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,802 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Try formatting one in a non-RAID configuration. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

04-25-2005, 08:21 AM	#4 (permalink)
paulie128 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3 OS: winxp	Johnwill, Tried that (with both disks). No joy whatsoever. Both failed in smae way so nothing to with RAID array. I am at a loss now as to what to do and am waiting for Hitachi support to get back to me.

04-25-2005, 09:45 AM	#5 (permalink)
paulie128 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3 OS: winxp	Hitachio have just got back to me. There advice is: "Use the Erase Disk utility from our Drive Fitness Test program to completely wipe the drive, restoring it to manufacturing state." I'll give it a go and report back what happens. Fingers crossed.