Hard drive "BAD"?

[bhxtyrant]

Hello once again,I am having a very weird problem today.Ok heres the deal.

A freind of mine asked my to install Linspire on his PC.The PC is running Windows XP pro.Now he has 3 hard drives main C: drive has windows.The slave E: drive is used for programs and he wants linux on drive F:

I went about installing linspire and at 67% complete i got an error which said "Error code 200: rsync" so no big deal after a few attempts and the same error i got fed up and decided to just format back to NTFS how it originally was.But then came the problem.The drive will not show up at all so i installed "Partiton Magig 8" now i can see the drive but whenever i try to format the drive it gives an error and on the selected drive it has "BAD" under it.Anyone know how i can fix this or what could cause it?I know the drive cant actually be bad because it was working perfectly fine before we tryed to install Linspire.

[Big Booger]

?I know the drive cant actually be bad because it was working perfectly fine before we tryed to install Linspire.

Hard drives can fail at a moments notice... sometimes they make funny sounds, act strange or what not, but sometimes it just goes crap in a flash.

Check the hard disk with a scan disk utility. You can search for one on google. Lots of HDD makers offer these tools free of charge.

If that doesn't do it, try formatting it with a bootdisk outside of windows. Windows 98 boot disk, load it, cd C: or whatever drive letter it is, then format it.

http://www.computerhope.com/formathl.htm

Use that page for the formatting syntax.

If that doesn't get it, try a software to regenerate your HDD or try to fix it.

http://www.topdownloads.net/software/view.php?id=8307

Maybe someone else has a better suggestion.

[rik]

Check the hard disk with a scan disk utility. You can search for one on google. Lots of HDD makers offer these tools free of charge.


Download the hdd diagnostics from the vendors website and see what it says.

[efc]

I have brought more than one hard drive back to life by writing "0" to the drive using the manufacturers diagnostic software.

[bhxtyrant]

thanks for the idea's everyone.Today i tried many of the above suggestions and had no luck.this is mainly because the drive cannot be detected in windows so programs like "hdd diagnostics" wont work.

About the using a manufacturers utility this hard drive is an old drive and doesnt have a name on it so i dont know who its manufactured by.I attempted to use "maxblast" that usually comes with maxtor drives with no luck.

I would try instqalling to the second slave drive in the PC (there were 3 drives the main C:,the slave E,and the one im having problems with now which was F) but i am a little sceptical because the F drive was working fine until i attempted to install linspire.

[Big Booger]

Your HDD might be hosed. Seeing as it is as old as you say, it might have given it's last data read/write.

Did you try a DOS boot disk? That takes care of the windows problem. Boot to DOS. CD to the drive, and then attempt to format it.

[bhxtyrant]

Thats a little bit of a problem.You see after this error occured the drive no longer has a drive letter.The PC knows its there but it doesnt give it a letter to change directory to if you know what i mean.I dont know ow else to format it if i cant give it a letter.So far only partition magic can detect it.

[Big Booger]

try going into the administrative tools of XP, under computer management. Once there, click on the storage tree, and then disk management. Is the drive listed there?

If it is, try right clicking it and format. It may say something like unallocated space or something. Right click format, and then that should allocate the space and create a drive letter for you.

If it is not listed in the computer management, then you might want to check to see if it is listed in the BIOS. If it is, then you might be able to access it with DOS.

[bhxtyrant]

Ok i will try this and report back.Just like to say thanks everyone for the time and patience.I know a decent amount about PC's but in some area's im still begining :)