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Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%
  1. 03 Sep 2009 #1


    wakenbake

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    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

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  2. 03 Sep 2009 #2
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    stoneys-nutz

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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/

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  3. 03 Sep 2009 #3


    wakenbake

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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!

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  4. 03 Sep 2009 #4
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    stoneys-nutz

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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.

    Failed to Format Vista x64 ultimate (0x80070057)

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  5. 03 Sep 2009 #5


    wakenbake

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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!

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  6. 03 Sep 2009 #6
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    stoneys-nutz

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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/

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  7. 03 Sep 2009 #7


    wakenbake

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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

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  8. 03 Sep 2009 #8


    wakenbake

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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

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  9. 03 Sep 2009 #9
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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    Let us know how it goes, good luck.

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  10. 03 Sep 2009 #10


    wakenbake

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    Re: Formatting new hard disk stops at 73%

    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.

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