Need help with format!

[kilo two nine]

Hey, I have a Maxtor One Touch external hard drive, Firewire and USB, it's pretty old, its only about 250 gigs, and i was having an I/O error pop up every time i went to try and access my files, would not allow me, so i reformatted, and now it won't format.. just says windows could not complete the format. i've tried everything, i need to HDD to work and i can't buy another one, Hard drives are expensive right now =/
could use any help i can get!
thanks

 

[rgarand]

I would suspect bad sectors or other hardware failure. wont be reliable for crucial data. Maybe try a different format tool, like the one that comes with northon ghost.
But if you succed formating, for sure make a check disk with f and r switch. prior to using it

 

[kilo two nine]

ok found the problem with the HDD, downloaded seagate software. can close thread