fsdragon

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2006
2
0
18,510
I have a Maxtor STM 3200820A hard drive as my 2nd drive. It is currently giving me a problem where it says it is not formatted and when I try to format it (via Windows or 3rd party software,) it says cannot format the drive.

Originally the drive was full and fine. Then I installed a new video card to support my new monitor. Then it went haywire giving me I/O errors. I disconnected the drive, ran windows, reconnected, and no more I/O errors. Now I cannot format. Side issue as well my floppy drive cannot format a disk either. They must somehow be related. Please help as I have exhausted support sites.
 

SolitoN79

Distinguished
Dec 26, 2006
36
0
18,530
Sorry buddy, but your drive sounds like it's finished. I had the exact same problem, and when I ran a disk consistency check, I had physical errors. That means the drive is physically messed up, which can result in corrupted or deleted files for no reason.

Run a consistency check; if your drive is partitioned, then check and see if the problem occurs on a specific partition only. If it does, you could just not use that partition and keep using the drive (but you lose the storage space, obviously). If your entire disk is messed, you'll need a new drive.
 

pscowboy

Distinguished
Apr 24, 2002
1,129
0
19,290
Get a W98 boot floppy (you might have one; or download the file to make one). Shut down.

Open your box and temporarily unplug the ribbon on your main hd; then set up the Maxtor as the 3rd boot device (cd drive, floppy, the Max) in the BIOS. First, change its' jumper to Master, and plug it into the Primary IDE connector on the mobo.

Pop in the floppy and restart. Type in fdisk at the "A" prompt, and delete all the partitions on the Maxtor. Shut down and reset your main drive as Master (make sure the jumper is right) plugged into an end connection on the ribbon. If one end is colored, that one goes into the mobo's Primary IDE connection. Plug the Maxtor, now jumpered as Slave, into the middle connection on the ribbon. You should be able to format it now in Disk Management.

As to the floppy drive, bring up a command prompt window - Start - Run - cmd. See if you can format a floppy diskette now by typing in format a:
 

fsdragon

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2006
2
0
18,510
Apparently it was a faulty Intel Application Accelerator driver. Too bad I low formatted everything. Thanks for the help though.