# Formatting new hdd, stops at 73%



## Livzz (Jan 14, 2010)

Hey guys,

I got a new hard drive the other day, and I've tried performing a full format on it several times so that i can use it, but it stops at 73%. No error messages come up, it just stops progressing. I tried leaving it on over night to see if it just needed more time, but it stayed at 73%.

Is it just a dud HDD, or is there something i can do ti fix it?

the hard drive is a WD15EARS

Thanks!
Paul


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## The_Other_One (Jan 14, 2010)

When it stops, is the activity light still illuminated (or solid)?  Did you confirm all the settings were correct (pretty rare they aren't)  Have you tried formatting the drive in another machine?


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## Livzz (Jan 14, 2010)

The activity light was no longer solid, but it did flash every now and then (probably due to background processes etc).

I haven't tried it in another machine yet, I'll try that tomorrow.

If the same thing happens in a different machine, what would be the next step?

Thanks for your help!


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## Bodaggit23 (Jan 14, 2010)

Try a Quick Format instead, see if that completes.


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Jan 14, 2010)

If you want to fully format that HDD,format it with the DOS tool called KILL DISK 4.1 inside of the DOS environment.I am pretty sure that will work with no problems...
You can simply run it from the DOS environment directly from your USB stick...
Here is the picture how that looks like:




If you don't know how to prepare your USB stick to be bootable so you can boot from it and do all this,tell me and with the Team Viewer I will connect to your computer and do the job for you.

NOTE: When formatting the HDD with KILL DISK 4.1,if you want to completely format the entire HDD,be sure to select that HDD and not his partition!!!



Cheers!


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## Livzz (Jan 14, 2010)

A quick format stopped at 73% as well...

Thanks for the killdisk idea, I'll try that next - but for now, I've found a small utility called "hdd low level format tool", which I'm trying now. I'll post again with the results.


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## Livzz (Jan 14, 2010)

The "hdd low level format tool" managed to format the entire drive!

only thing is... I'm now using winXP x32 (separate machine), whereas when I began trying to format the drive, I was on my main PC running vista x64. This means I now need to deal with the GPT Protective Partition...

I'm stuck on this winXP machine until the end of Jan, so i'll try writing zeros with Kill Disk.


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Jan 15, 2010)

LoL instead of having torture with so many programs,you could already format your HDD 100 times with the KILL DISK 
Anyway do it and tell me if it worked.
NOTE: KILL DISK might need up to 19 hours to format the HDD completely,but this is the case ONLY ON SOME HDDs!!!


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## Livzz (Mar 31, 2010)

I just tried formatting with kill disk, but the drive still won't work...

I wasn't here at the time though so i'm not sure if kill disk managed to fully complete a 'write-zeros' operation or not.

any other suggestions??


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## Cromewell (Mar 31, 2010)

Have you tried scanning the disk with WD's data life guard tool? http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&lang=en

It could be that the drive has failed.


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## alexcarlson (Mar 31, 2010)

Hope Cromewell's information will help you.

Thanks


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## Livzz (Apr 5, 2010)

The WD diagnosis utility doesn't work on vista... bummer.

I think i'll have to get the shop to test it for me. 

thanks anyway guys!


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## blazin8556 (Apr 5, 2010)

i would have returned it by now and gotten a totally different model.


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## Livzz (Apr 6, 2010)

I just went and got the hard drive swapped with a new one, and the same thing happened...


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## Cromewell (Apr 6, 2010)

Have you tried a different SATA cable? Different port on the motherboard?


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## Livzz (Apr 7, 2010)

I've just installed windows7, and its working fine!


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