Re: Drive D is suddenly "not formatted"

Thanks for all your help! I will do a full format tonight and let it take
as long as necessary.

MaryL


"R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OFqwsMzSIHA.1208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If you format the disk/volume, don't take the Quick format mode. Let
Disk Management format and check the clusters. Every drive has extra
or spare clusters to remap the ones marked bad. A full format will take
much longer but check for any unreliable areas on the disk surface.

As to Vista, it's biggest issue is the "Public Perception" that has set
in.
I hear the comments all the time "Need 2+ Gigabytes, it's slow" and
several other real & imagined problems with it.

Peripheral support can be a problem so it's best to check vendor sites
and see if your particular model has Vista drivers/support.

"MaryL" <stancole1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ObUIdIzSIHA.4476@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I double-clicked on several red icons. Each one showed that Drive D has a
bad block. When I clicked on the location for more information, I found
this explanation: "The device has a bad block of memory, which Windows
attempted to read. The data might be missing or corrupted." Under User
Action, it says: "If this event is logged regularly, replace the hard disk
drive." I hope that won't be necessary, but I'll reformat first. I know
I will eventually need a new computer and was looking at some this week.
A tech at Staples said it might be a mistake to get Vista at this time
because I have a number of peripherals that I could not afford to replace
(two printers, slide scanner, router, cable modem, etc.), and he said
Vista is not compatible with some devices. I haven't looked any farther
than that as yet because I would rather not spend the money for a new
computer if I can put if off for awhile.

MaryL

"R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OVb1%23rySIHA.2268@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You Double-Click each Red icon and the details box for the event will
be shown. Included will be an Event ID# and a brief description of the
error. It's likely you'll see mention of IDE/ATAPI or disk drive was not
able to write data.

"MaryL" <stancole1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OpyrlpySIHA.3864@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you very much. Now, I hope you can decipher what I found. There
were a whole series of errors with red icons, most from today. The
messages appear in "clusters" within a short time span. Each showed:
Error/Today's Date/Time/Disk/None (under Category)/7 (under Event)/N/A
(under User/ and the computer ID number. One "cluster" or grouping
will be followed by a series of Information listings -- also for
today -- but no errors with them. Then will come another group of
errors, then another group of Information, etc. There is a very long
list of these messages. When I scrolled to the bottom, I could see that
the error messages actually started two days ago (12/28/2007). What
type of information can I extract from this?

Incidentally, my earlier reference to Maxtor was actually to my
internal Drive D (the one with the problem) and not to the I/O Magic
extrnal drive.

MaryL


"R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OU0a5LySIHA.5208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
First off, you describe your issue very well. It's very hard to know
why
a drive suddenly reports itself as unformatted. Doubtful it was some
kind
of lettering collision. You might want to take a look at the System
event
log and see if any IDE controller or drive errors have happened
recently.
If I had to speculate, I'd say the Partition table has been corrupted.
There
are recovery tools but your plan to just reformat is probably best. If
you
can afford the time, I'd do a full format, not quick just to verify
the integrity
of the drive itself.
Event Log:
Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
Expand System and scan Right Pane for red icons that denote errors.

"MaryL" <stancole1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eY7cRDySIHA.3916@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
Edition. Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D
(an internal "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also
have several external USB hard drives that I use for backups and
storage. Everything worked well until today. I was using an I/O Magic
portable hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM -- 40GB), and I did not notice any
problems. However, after I unplugged the I/O Magic disk, I suddenly
could not access my internal Drive D. It says that Drive D is not
formatted. I checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't see any problems
there -- all my data is still intact. I rebooted, but still have the
same problem -- Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was able to use
it yesterday). I did a search for this problem and found numerous
references to the external disk suddenly not being formatted, but that
is not my problem. The only relationship in my case is that an
external disk was plugged into the USB port immediately before I saw
this problem. None of the sites I read had a solution except to take
the computer to a tech shop to try to retrieve data.

One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic
disk that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it
could not even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what
caused the problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk
and not to my internal hard drives.

Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of
*everything* and even alternate disks from home to the office every
few weeks to make sure that I will have a copy even if everything at
home were destroyed or stolen. However, can anyone explain what
might have happened to cause this problem so I can avoid it in the
future? And, most important, I would hope to avoid a similar problem
with Drive C.

Thanks,
MaryL













.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: conflict of software Nero Recordnow Drivers - or ??
    ... disk package anywhere. ... If Not when Would I format a disk? ... For most normal disc burning projects, music CDs, playable DVDs, Photo CDs, ... I know I did have DLA, On both drives and I was using when asked if I ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: Bad Clusters
    ... On one of the external drives, ... indicating the clusters were not really fixed by Windows, ... > head positioning wobble that reduces accuracy of pickup, ... i.e. where the head touches the disk and thus damages it. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: OT - Dabs USB hard drive - advice please
    ... > USB "hard drives" are flash memory devices ... They use ordinary 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch hard disk drives ... > Microsoftian file format of VFAT. ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Adding memory
    ... Formatting needs a partition to format first. ... Disk manager will do ... Now you must partition and format your new drive. ... where secondary drives are involved ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: 2nd hard drive install
    ... operating system by accessing the Disk Management utility - Start> ... Now you must partition and format your new drive. ... where secondary drives are involved ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)