12 replies to this topic

[Sworn_Vendetta]

So I had to format my external hdd (its a samsung 2tb) after lending it to my brother (irelivant information sorry). So I started the full format around 76hours ago. I feel as if this is to long and that something has gone wrong but I dont want to cancel the format because of how long its been going for.

 

What Im asking is, should I cancel it? has something gone wrong? Ive never had to format a external hard drive before so not sure what I should do in this situation (although after researching this issue Ive found out that I should have formatted it when I first recieved it... oh well).

[hornybluecow]

you should cancel it, if its going that long its stuck and probly been since the start. if you do quick format its about a minute. if you want to zero everything out its a few hours. took me 5 hours to zero out a 2TB yesterday.

 

edit: are you using windows? because I would honestly just do a quick format and use HDtech to check for errors which probly be a few hours to do a full read since its max 30mb/s with USB 2.0. even so I usually don't do that much, just quick format and if i don't hear any screaching sounds when i do a quick error read (reads every 1gb) I figure its okay.

Edited by hornybluecow, 10 February 2013 - 11:19 PM.

[Sworn_Vendetta]

I need to zero it out thats the problem :/.... Whenever I plug it into my computer I get a error telling me that I need to format it but quick formats always failed so I tried a full format... Ill cancel it though I guess and try again.

[My_Inner_Fred]

Have you tried doing a Disk Check? wait you can't see anything on it because its tell you to format it first right? Or can you access the drive but that pop-up keeps coming up?

[hornybluecow]

I have a feeling you have a bad drive, if it won't quick format and ask you to do a full format everytime than basically freezes thats not good. use HDtech to check your drive, you don't need to format it for it to show up. Check for error and see if it goes or if bad blocks come up.

[Sworn_Vendetta]

I have a feeling you have a bad drive, if it won't quick format and ask you to do a full format everytime than basically freezes thats not good. use HDtech to check your drive, you don't need to format it for it to show up. Check for error and see if it goes or if bad blocks come up.

 

Ok after about half a year of fucking around I finally managed to get HDtach working and the result is..... (drum role please) It keeps failing on the sequential read test (tried three times on both 8mb and 32mb zones). Also I know it has bad blocks but I was led to believe that running a full format would fix that.

[Sworn_Vendetta]

Oh also the error pops up when I plug it in to the computer I cant access anything on it.

[hornybluecow]

I don't want to be the one to say its bad, but if it was in my computer i was trash it. maybe someone else has a solution.

Edited by hornybluecow, 11 February 2013 - 12:33 AM.

[Sworn_Vendetta]

I don't want to be the one to say its bad, but if it was in my computer i was trash it. maybe someone else has a solution.

 

I was expecting this to be the case.... oh well. Its my fault for trusting another human with my posessions ...

[Stonerboy779]

you could crack the case pull the drive and connect it via sata just so you can access it better and perform actions faster. Give it one last chance at a format like that and then consider scrapping it.

[Sworn_Vendetta]

you could crack the case pull the drive and connect it via sata just so you can access it better and perform actions faster. Give it one last chance at a format like that and then consider scrapping it.

 

God dammit man you might be right... Ill do it.

[wevsspot]

In addition to Stoner's recommendation you could also use a third party utility to attempt a secure (MIL-spec) erase.  Together both of those options might do the trick.  If not then you'll likely have to replace the drive.