Cannot Fully Format Seagate 1.5TB ST31500341AS

[Toohey]

To those still suffering from this problem my story might be of some assistance.

Last week i purchased a 1.5TB Seagate drive, got home and it would only format to 73% on a normal drive format (That is around 1TB i think) and quick format would not work.

I could however format the drive to 1TB with no issues, the remainder could not be used - it just generated errors.

My motherboard is a MSI P6N, nforce chipset. So i went onto the nvidia.com website, grabbed the latest nforce drivers, installed those, rebooted the machine and formatting worked like a charm.

For all those with an nforce chipset i would highly recommend doing this.

 

[bg2]

I have had the same problem on a Dell XPS 600. I tried updating the nvidia drivers, but after several attempts, updating the drivers did not complete successfully and aborted. The fix I finally employed was to use a freeware version of Partition Master 3.5 by EASUS. I created a 500GB partition and formatted it, leaving the remainder unallocated. I then resized the disk using the same program and, so far, it works perfectly. Shows correctly in explorer and I have copied/read/executed files/programs on these partitions.

 

[Guest]

hi guys i had the same problem i stole 1.5tb seagate hard drive and i couldind format it so i found a solution (Paragon Hard Disk Manager™ 2009 Professional Edition) this program solved all my problems with this HDD it formatit in two minutes if you need crack just email me at deividas123456789@yahoo.com

 

[jdmmba]

To those still suffering from this problem my story might be of some assistance.

Last week i purchased a 1.5TB Seagate drive, got home and it would only format to 73% on a normal drive format (That is around 1TB i think) and quick format would not work.

I could however format the drive to 1TB with no issues, the remainder could not be used - it just generated errors.

My motherboard is a MSI P6N, nforce chipset. So i went onto the nvidia.com website, grabbed the latest nforce drivers, installed those, rebooted the machine and formatting worked like a charm.

For all those with an nforce chipset i would highly recommend doing this.

If you have Vista and an nVidia chipset, this Knowledge Base article on Seagate's web-site will explain the problem and provide the link to the newer driver that supports more than 1.1TB.
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=206391&NewLang=en&Hilite=install+%7C+format

 

[legacyprog]

I have an HP Pavilion a6230n running 32 bit Windows Vista and just installed the nVidia chipset updated drivers from the jdmmba link above (note that these drivers *include* SATA chipset support, which makes sense there could be a connection). For my particular PC it was the 6150SE nForce 430 driver set, but it could be different for yours.

At the moment I type this I have gotten past the original problems where I couldn't even do a Quick Format of the "higher" partition. Both partitions were created and quick formatted to 698Meg, I am now taking the cautious approach of full formatting both but that will take a long time. I will post again if I have later problems.

 

[davo1958]

I had a problem formatting a Seagate 1.5 drive on a Dell XPS running Win xp pro x64. You could not format anything (quick or long) over 1TB using Win disk manager. Kept getting the "could not complete" error message.
Found a freeware partition program (Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition 4.0.1
on www.download.com) and tried that.

To my amasement, the little freeware program was able to fully format the drive in less than 3 min.

 

[Guest]

I bought a new WD 2TB Green Caviar and was experiencing the same issue as everyone else with Vista...get to 54% format and then...NOTHING. This utility solved the problem. The BIOS of my Gateway machine recognized the drive as 2TB. Vista just sucks.

 

[Guest]

in order to read drives above 137 gb you need XP SP3

 

[ungozer]

I added a second 1.5 TB HDD and I could not get it formatted in Vista - not even in Computer Management. THIS message below did the trick! Thank you very much!!

I had a problem formatting a Seagate 1.5 drive on a Dell XPS running Win xp pro x64. You could not format anything (quick or long) over 1TB using Win disk manager. Kept getting the "could not complete" error message.
Found a freeware partition program (Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition 4.0.1
on www.download.com) and tried that.

To my amasement, the little freeware program was able to fully format the drive in less than 3 min.

 

[gt200]

Had the same issue with a Samsing HD154UI in a Compaq Presario SR5220AN. Updated the drivers for the chipset nForce 430/GeForce 6150SE from here http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista_15.23.html for Vista 32bit now all works fine. Thanks to all for the help.

 

[atjaguarx]

I had the same problem as a user above (vista would freeze on a 2TB drive at 54%). I tried the Seagate DOS utility but it would kick out when i selected my Hitachi 2TB drive.

I downloaded and installed Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition 4.1.1 from download.com. This program solved the problem for me. It took longer for the program to install then it took to format my 2TB drive!

Problem solved!

 

[rohannel]

Download diskwizard from Seagate website: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/.
This will fully solve youre problems, it worked for me.

 

[Guest]

Solution Found :
I had purchased a Hitachi 2TB hard drive. It would only format about 900 GB and I thought I needed to RMA it. I downloaded Disk Utilities from Hitachi's website and ran a 7 hour advanced test on the drive to look for errors, I then did a complete "0" write over the hard drive that took another 6 hours to see if there were some bad sectors.
Even after the tests on the hard drive came back negative and the zero write was complete, windows would "successfully format" the drive. I kept getting hung up on anything larger than a tb when I partitioned the drive. Frustrated I used the vista install disk and kill disk and tried formatting from bootup software but this didn't work.

THE SOLUTION-
as other people have mentioned it turned out to be the Nvidia chipset on my Mobo. I thought it was recently updated as late as AUG 09 but apparently there was something missing.
I have an Nvidia 750a SLI chipset on a MSI motherboard so I was used to running the MSI Live Update for Bios and chipset updates. It was only when i went to Nvidia that the problem was fixed. As soon as I installed the chipset update and rebooted I was able to format the entire 2GB no problem.
I hope this info helps people

 

[Guest]

You can format your HDD 1.5 TO using "Hard disk lowlevel format Tool"(freeware).

 

[hirtlep]

Solution Found :
I had purchased a Hitachi 2TB hard drive. It would only format about 900 GB and I thought I needed to RMA it. I downloaded Disk Utilities from Hitachi's website and ran a 7 hour advanced test on the drive to look for errors, I then did a complete "0" write over the hard drive that took another 6 hours to see if there were some bad sectors.
Even after the tests on the hard drive came back negative and the zero write was complete, windows would "successfully format" the drive. I kept getting hung up on anything larger than a tb when I partitioned the drive. Frustrated I used the vista install disk and kill disk and tried formatting from bootup software but this didn't work.

THE SOLUTION-
as other people have mentioned it turned out to be the Nvidia chipset on my Mobo. I thought it was recently updated as late as AUG 09 but apparently there was something missing.
I have an Nvidia 750a SLI chipset on a MSI motherboard so I was used to running the MSI Live Update for Bios and chipset updates. It was only when i went to Nvidia that the problem was fixed. As soon as I installed the chipset update and rebooted I was able to format the entire 2GB no problem.
I hope this info helps people

... and may I add my acknowledgement to that aforementioned "THE SOLUTION" as the correct solution for me. That is my motherboard as well and the download of ... hold on, I'll get the link ...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.45.html

worked. It's around 158Mb and installs ok, excepting the surprise reboot (Windows XP sp3 yelled on the way back up ... odd), but has ALL the nvidia drivers in a bundle ... storage, display, etc. My Seagate 1.5Tb SATA behaved just fine on reboot. 1.39somethingTb

Thanks for the forum, guys, and ah ... Tom? Are you like the same Tom that's been around since Radio Shack had electronics kits in red and clear boxes?

 

[MIKEDATA]

Hi all..well i just like to thank hirtlep for his post as i had two 1.5tb one which was a seagate and one WD, both where i had 1.36 after a format, BUT on filling the 1st drive and started to get read/write erros with only 536GB left on the drive and it was doing my head in as i did have 4 1TB drive which i had no probs at all.....my Motherboard was a Asus Striker II Extreme and after i d/l from the link hirtlep posted and install it every thing was sweet and now i can use the full 1,36TB of the drive with no errors,so thanks agian......

regs
MIKEDATA

 

[leon2006]

Use 3rd party tool such as Acronis Disk Director. It will partion the drive to your liking and format to the file system you want.

Another approach is install acronis disk director after you installed your OS(regardless if the OS installation left you with a smaller drive space available). Once you load Acronis disk director you can access the enire available drive space.

 

[Calabrel]

I'm sorry, I don't mean to necropost this thread, but it exactly defines my problem, specifically this post:

To those still suffering from this problem my story might be of some assistance.

Last week i purchased a 1.5TB Seagate drive, got home and it would only format to 73% on a normal drive format (That is around 1TB i think) and quick format would not work.

I could however format the drive to 1TB with no issues, the remainder could not be used - it just generated errors.

My motherboard is a MSI P6N, nforce chipset. So i went onto the nvidia.com website, grabbed the latest nforce drivers, installed those, rebooted the machine and formatting worked like a charm.

For all those with an nforce chipset i would highly recommend doing this.

While I don't have a 1.5 TB Seagate, I have a 2 TB Caviar Green Western Digital, but I believe that's irrelevant. I am, however, having massive amounts of trouble identifying my chipset model so I can update my drivers.

First, let me give you this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107857

That is the exact PC I purchased from Newegg.com.

The cpu came with a PC-Doctor Hardware Diagnostics Tools app that is pretty helpful, this is the info I pulled from the motherboard with that program:

Detailed Device Information - System Board
------------------------------------------
Thursday, January 13, 2011 9:28:12 PM

--------------------------------------
System Board [SYSTEMBOARDSystem Board]
--------------------------------------

Chipset: nVidia MCP78/77/72
Manufacturer: PEGATRON CORPORATION
Product: VIOLA
Version: 2.03
Serial Number: MS1C86R72703954
Board Type: UNKNOWN
Feature Flags: Hosting Board, Requires Daughter Board, Removable, Replaceable, Hot Swappable


Product Version: 5.1.4748.24

However after searching with that I'm still unable to conclusively find out which chipset I'm using. I'm under the impression it's some sort of nForce, but without knowing the series I don't think I can proceed.

Also, in Device Manager under System devices > NVIDIA nForce System Management - it says the following:

Driver Provider: NVIDIA

Driver Date: 9/6/2007

Driver Version: 4.6.3.0

Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

---------------------------------

System devices > NVIDIA nForce System Management Controller Properties:

Driver Provider: NVIDIA

Driver Date: 6/29/2009

Driver Version: 5.1.2600.171

Digital Signer: microsoft windows hardware compatibility publisher

--------------------------------

Any help please?

I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium x64 with service pack 2, I have virus protection and Windows updates current with no issues. 5 GB ram, AMD quad-core processing.

 

[Calabrel]

I found this neat program called CPU-Z and discovered I have an nForce 720a chipset, I downloaded the latest drivers and voila the drive formatted like a charm, thanks all, and sorry for necroposting for nothing

 

[doneway]

Nvidia chipset on All Malfunctioning Any Brand of 1.5 Terabyte up Hard Drive

Nvidia


Dear Sir/Madam:


My Name is [will be revealed upon valid request], a Filipino. On December 1, 2010 I purchased a Seagate Hardisk, 1.5 Terabyte SATA. I formatted, it works. I was happy, then I transferred all my files on it. Files containing data and softwares that took me months and years before I acquired such precious materials. After a week, all my files was gone! About 97% of them totally vanished! I'm just a little lucky because I still have the backup of the remaining 3%, but the rest is gone! My Event logs (Windows XP) was full of red and yellow colored errors, indicates that there is something wrong with the new Hard Drive I installed. So why I wrote to Nvidia? It's a Seagate problem! Please continue reading, so you will understand. I made a research for almost two weeks, just to figure out how to fix a malfunctioning Hardisk or at least restoring all my precious data and softwares. Reading all the forums and other online message boards alike, I found out the culprit--Nvidia chipset! Nvidia said there could be something wrong with the PSU and other hardwares. Well, I bought a new PSU. Nothing happens! The hardsik is not working, all my files 97% of them is gone! I would not buy any other hardwares just to figure out because all are new except CPU, the casing and the motherboard. For sure, the mobo, CPU and the casing had nothing to do with the problem, I knew it, I'm fixing computers for 20 years! I almost didn't sleep and eat those days, focusing on just one task-- fix my files and the Hardisk! Due to fatigue and tiredness, I was involved in a car accident! Luckily there was no human casualties, I pay a big amount of money just to settle damages of the tragedy. My whole holiday season of December 2010 was completely wasted, just because of Nvidia! Then I just accepted the fact that all my materials was lost and the only way to get it back is to start all over again in agony and return the Hardisk for Warranty. The Hardisk lie in state for the rest of the holiday season. I only got time to return it for warranty last January 3. The tech guy said, it's for replacement and wait for one month! I even loose hope if they would really replace it because careful scrutiny will prove the defect occurs after it was purchased. After a month, I was surprised when the tech guy contacted me confirming that the replacement had just arrive and ready for pickup. I got a new Hardisk, but same old problem occurs, the hardisk is not working well! Full of bad sectors, can't maximize to 1.5 Terabyte, it seemed that it has a 1 Terabyte brickwall barrier. I tried everything, I mean "everything that Nvidia says" on how to fix hardisk problems. I already tried all Seagate's probable solutions and recommendations, but it all points to NVIDIA! And nothing works!

By the way, I got MSI's MS-7309 Motherboard, with NVIDIA MCP61 chipset on it. It's not MSI's fault! It's Nvidia's fault! And I had just found the ultimate solution. The solution is For Sale, ONE MILLION U.S. Dollars cash. That's the price that I need so I will disclose the cure to this disease. I need a compensation because it caused me a lot of trouble. One Million Dollars cash or no one will know except me! I can buy a lot of hardisk 1.5 Terabyte up, any brand, put it on any system with Nvidia chipset and it will work without any error (assuming the Hardisk has no manufacturing defects). It's the only fix that will work, I know how to do it and no other people knows, guaranteed. It will be disclosed it to the highest bidder. Hackers, spammers, governments, rival companies of Nvidia are a welcome to bid. I will only discuss once I receive the full payment in cash. Bidding starts at One Million Dollars. I guarantee, even if you download all Nvidia's fix, it will not work, only my method will work. That's the result of sleepless days and nights, figuring out this Nvidia-Hardisk malfunction problem. If their fix will work then I will not waste time to make this offer, and I will not fall into deep tragedy since the solution is just around the corner. But that's not the case, Nvidia has no solution for this, only me! One more thing, my solution will also implicate Nvidia, so this could serve as evidence in court and therefore make them liable and get involve in a big fiasco again. So, what is One Million Dollars, compared to Two Hundred Million to One Billion Dollars worth of damage because Nvidia is responsible for all malfunctioning SATA Hardisk 1.5 Terabyte above. Payment for disclosure is non negotiable and non refundable.


My E-mail address: doneway7@gmail.com

 

[empire8214]

Hey Mystic5hadow,

I was having the same problem with my 1.5 Seagate Baracuda drive and found a fast and easy solution. Ok maybe not fast but easy. If you have Ubuntu loaded on your computer or you can load it as a shared OS you can go in under the system tools and format the drive in less than 5 seconds. I spent over a day trying to format via Windows Disk Management tools and only got to 36%. I hope this helps.

Empire8214