Windows 7: seagate HDD wont format

ello everyone,

so my problem is that i have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB HDD that seems to disconnect itself when trying to format it, by that imean it stops responding. every time i try to format the drive in windows it produces 5 event id 15's (The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR2, is not ready for access yet.) a event id 11 (The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort2.) and another event id 15.

another possibly related oddity is that inside windows and when i boot from the Windows 7 install dvd the drive letters/paths are different. inside windows i have the System Reserved partition on my first HDD(Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB) without a drive letter, my Windows 7 partition is labeled as C:, my seagate HDD is labeled as E: and my DVD burner is labeled as D:. outside of windows, booting into the install DVD, the System Reserved partition is labeled as C:, the Windows 7 partition is listed as E:, the seagate drive is listed as D: and the dvd burner is labeled as F:.

my question is if this is a software or hardware issue, the seagate drive is still under warranty and i can just return it, but if it's a software issue that will rear up it's head later then i would need to fix that instead. so, any ideas?

Kabliga,

Boot up your system from a System Repair Disk

When you see the first dialog asking you to hit Next, then:
Shift + F10 key combo

This will get you a Command Prompt produced by the Win7PE on your repair disk.

the prompt will appear as X:>

At this point, you may remove the System Repair Disk.

Now you will use the DiskPart command.

The DiskPart command is very powerful.

Please read further--to avoid a disaster.

Enter following command
DiskPart

You will now be at the DiskPart prompt.
DISKPART>

Now you will enter some DiskPart commands.
LIST DISK
this will list the disks on your system
You will now select the desired disk. I'm going to use disk 2. You use the disk number appropriate for your system.
SELECT DISK 2
DETAIL DISK
This should help you verify that you selected the correct disk.
CLEAN
this will write zeroes over the first and last sectors of the drive.
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
you just created a partition on the drive
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION 1
DETAIL PARTITION
you will have only one partition, with the number 1
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
will quick format the partition. Wait for this command to finish.
EXIT
EXIT

Reboot your system and use Disk Management for any further disk management.

WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | Enter

Check your cables.

How to troubleshoot event ID 9, event ID 11, and event ID 15 error messages

karl, when i attempted to use the diskpart command/exe from the X: it asked me to put in a script myself, but i will go and try it again and edit my post afterwards. i had to use the diskpart.exe from the windows directory on my Windows 7 partition to actually use diskpart

cable is fine, i've removed it and plugged it into a different spot and still gotten the same problem .i've already looked at that and itonly describesa scsi interfaces. also i have checked the firmware and pretty much everything i can think of, it only stops responding when i try to format it or read a specific block on the disk(i couldnt tell you which block at the momment). unless someone will tell me that each sata spot on a MB gets a different controller( which i highly doubt) and even then i still got the same problem

Kabliga,

Make a Windows 7 System Repair Disk.
START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disk button



Set your Bios to boot first from CD.
Power off your computer with the CD inserted.
Power on your computer.

When you get that first dialog, Shift F10 key combo
You will end up a command prompt!!!

Do NOT try to run cmd.exe . Simply
Diskpart
and then all of the diskpart commands I listed.

This may be of help.

theog,
On the size disk he has, 1.5 TB a clean all will take between 12-14 hours according to one chap.

This is why I did not recommend a clean all.

As a security measure and to rule out unusual possibilities then a clean all is excellent. Clean all will write zeroes to his entire disk which is a very time-consuming operation.

Only meant as a screenshot of diskpart, to help OP.
Not to override your command line list.

Go to seagate and download their diagnostic tool. run it on the drive and you will have your answer

ken

Theog,
Thanks. As many times as diskpart questions come up, I think I'd better get in the habit of making screen saves of the sequence. Would probably be better.

karl