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
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Thursday, January 13, 2011 9:28:12 PM
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System Board [SYSTEMBOARDSystem Board]
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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
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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
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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.