Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

Hello all,

I've used this forum A LOT to find answers to the many problems I've had with my pc - now I have one that I can't find a solution for, so here I am posting!

I'm trying to format a new Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB hdd but it won't go any further than 73%. Computer Management tells me that its still formatting (i.e. NO error message) but its been there for hours.

I've tried formatting from the Vista installation cd during boot but it plain refused (I forget the error message), it won't even do a quick format in Computer Management.

Is my drive humped?

Many thanks in advance.

wakenbake

Hello wakenbake,
Did you have a disc with your new HDD, it should have a formatting utility on it.
If not, you can go to the makers site to see if they have a downloadable version.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/

Hi stoneyz-nuts,
Thanks for the fast reply and suggestion.
I already tried Seagate Discwizard with no luck. It finds a lot of unreadable sectors on a different disk (which is the reason for the new one) but still won't format the new one. Error 0x80070057 but I've got windows update turned off!

Is the new HDD IDE or SATA, and is the Bios set to the correct type of HDD ?.

Also take a look at this thread with a similar problem.

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/199742-failed-format-vista-x64-ultimate-0x80070057.html

Hi stoneyz-nuts,
Thanks for the fast reply and suggestion.
I already tried Seagate Discwizard with no luck. It finds a lot of unreadable sectors on a different disk (which is the reason for the new one) but still won't format the new one. Error 0x80070057 but I've got windows update turned off!

Just another thought, there's not a partition on the HHD is there ?, if there is, delete it and re-try.
Is this an external or internal HHD ?.
Take a look here too.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927520/

Its a SATA drive with no partitions on it yet...
I'm going to try connecting it to a different connector and running discwizard again - I'll let you know.

Many thanks

Its looking good....

I connected the drive to a different connector and used Seagate DiscWizard to delete the FAT16(!?!?!?!?) partition that it found there (NOT my doing!). Then I ran the 'add new disc' wizard which found a whole bunch of sectors it could neither read from nor write to. I cancelled the errors and formatted the drive with no problems! Now I'm running chkdsk on the drive to see if it can fix those sector problems.

Fingers crossed.

Thanks again for your help stoneyz-nuts

Let us know how it goes, good luck. :D

Well, the disk's formatted and usable but shows in 'Computer' as having only 0.99TB free of 1.36TB - and its empty!

I've run chkdsk on it TWICE and it doesn't find any faults, but Seagate DiscWizard is still finding sectors it can't read from.

Is there any other third party app I can try so have a good look at my hdd, or should I just send it back? This would seem a lot like giving up though, and I'm a stubborn SOB.

Try this, if there is anything on the disk this will get rid of it.
Scroll down the page to the bottom and download the free one.
Good luck and post your results, thanks.


Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format.

OK, so I compared the newest disk to the others that I have and the difference was that it had a logical partition on it and the others are all primary partitions. So I wiped it and started again and got the new one to also be primary, even though I won't be using it to boot from.

Anyway, it worked!! 1.36TB free of 1.36TB! Hooray! Fingers crossed that I haven't just glossed over some issues and it all goes FUBAR in a few weeks....

PS.... Did I see a 'Problem Solved' button around here...?

wakenbake said:

OK, so I compared the newest disk to the others that I have and the difference was that it had a logical partition on it and the others are all primary partitions. So I wiped it and started again and got the new one to also be primary, even though I won't be using it to boot from.

Anyway, it worked!! 1.36TB free of 1.36TB! Hooray! Fingers crossed that I haven't just glossed over some issues and it all goes FUBAR in a few weeks....

PS.... Did I see a 'Problem Solved' button around here...?

Click to expand...

yh thats what i have been trying to find around here as well !!!

I know this thread is old, but this 73% after hours of formatting happened to me too. I just got a brand new Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB 7200.11 SATA drive.

I did not understand how you wipe out the logical part as mentioned above. Anyone knows what to do, step for step? The PC just sits there at 73%, no error codes. I let it go over night.

Hi Arild929

I also got the same problem. It doesn't matter if it is a Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TByte 7200.11 SATA drive or not because I changed it to a Western Digital 1.5 TByte and the same behaviour appeared.

The freeze error of some Seagate discs is described at the Seagate HP and occures only at specific firmware types of that Barracuda disc. So, believe me, if your firmware is not described in that link, the problem must have another source. I guess that's the reason why Seagate Support doesn't react any more because they know its not their fault.

You should try to update your nVidia nForce controller drivers. Please have a look to that link. Maybe the latest version will be updated by nVidia. After I had updated the drivers, the problem disappeared and I could use my hard disc with the full 1.5 TByte space without problems.

I guess only guys with Vista Home Premium and a ASUS motherboard have that kind of problem. So, maybe other people can help that too.

I searched for that solution 2 years, because I plugged the Seagate Barracuda into an external case, where I could format it without any problem. But a few days ago, I reached approx. 1 TByte space usage and my disc was freezing again. So, the only way to fix that permanently is to update your drivers!!!!

Have a nice day and good luck!!
Greetings from Vienna, Austria