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HDD Problem "Drive Not Formatted" msg

1K views 9 replies 3 participants last post by  rdnpdx1 
#1 ·
I just encountered a problem with my WD2000 200GB HD. I have it configured on a Promise UltraATA controller as the primary slave, though the problem persisted when I moved it to be the primary slave on the MB. So I don't think it could be related to placement.

I installed the drive, which is a replacement for another WD2000 recently returned to WD. All installed OK and I began moving data. (I collect a lot of concert recordings which eat up huge quantities of space.) After a couple of days, when I powered up the computer showed the drive, but gave the message that the drive was not formatted, yet I know it was and that it had 60 GB of data on it the night before. -- The same problem existed with the drive I sent back and I assumed it was a defective HDD. WD test program shows drive is OK.

I have checked the jumpers, reinstalled it w/o reformatting, but the problem persists. Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks.

Bob
 
#2 ·
welcome to TSG, rdnpx1, is the drive formatted using NTFS? and about the concert recordings, convert them to mp3...
 
#3 ·
or if they are video, to wmv
 
#4 ·
The drive is formatted as NTFS, if that makes a difference in things.

And thanks for the welcome. I should have taken time to introduce myself.

I'm not a total tech idiot, my 13 y.o. and I are about to build a own new system for him. But it does seem that I get myself into trouble when I think I know more than I do. And this seems to be the case this time.

I left out some info. I run XP home edition, Intel 2.4 GHz CPU w/ 1Gig of RAM. On the motherboard I have a Maxtor 160 GB as boot drive, and a WD2000 which works fine as the slave. I have a DVD+/- RW and CDRW as secondary master and slave.

The problem is with a drive I have hooked to the Ultra ATA IDE controller. To finish off the hard drives, I have a WD2500 250 GB as primary master and the problem drive as primary slave on the controller.

I know you are probably shaking your head at the space, but I have been using the drives to store full lossless versions, ratther than mp3 versions, of shows, which is greatly preferred among traders of concerts.

The problem does not go away when I remove some of the drives to reduce the numbers. Nor does it make a difference where I configure the drive on the card or the motherboard.

The WD Data Lifeguard utilities show no problem with the drive. But the same thing occurred with the earlier drive. Tested fine but repeatedly lost data. This earlier drive made a lot of noise, so I figured the drive was defective when the data losses occurred.

Both drives have been the bottom of my four drives, near the bottom of the tower case. None of the other drives have had a problem.
 
#6 ·
getdataback ntfs will recover your data

ill give u the url soon, and it costs 79$ otherwise, u can only view data, not copy it...

when u do install it, ill help u around it, it is a bit confusing...

if u do store lossless audio, try wma lossless, i know mp3 isnt much good for industry use, its useless. but wma losless takes about 13-18% less space than a 44khz 320kbps wave format file... i recommended mp3 because i thought u use it for listening... and i dont think u should convert to wma just yet, wave is still the most widely supported format...
i asked if ur ntfs so i could recommend a data recovery program accordingly, try http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm (getdataback ntfs) it costs 79$
 
#8 ·
itsworth the pennies, did u buy the full version, or is it the trial? it can ruin your harddrive if run with incorrect settings. post here about what ur doing...
 
#10 ·
Tried replacing the EIDE cables and the drive still shows as not being formatted.

When I ran GetDataBack on the problem drive, it did not show the files associated with folders for the most part, but showed a lot of lost files. There were a lot of avi files, but nothing obvious to recover, though. And there certainly didn't seem to be enough segments to account for the 60 GB of data files (being stored in shn format by the way, not wav, for what it is worth).

Question, could I run GDB on a functioning drive and recover files from the location from which I transferred them to the problem drive?
 
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