Unable to format new hard drive? Error code x80070057 First build help!

[siggy1387]

Hello members of the esteemed council of greater technological solutions, I've called you all here to help in a time of grave significance. I have just completed my first build and am having issues with a brand new hard drive being unable to be formatted.

Here are the parts of my computer
3770 Intel i7 cpu
ASROCK Z77 extreme 4 mother board
MSI GTX 670 graphics card
Corsair TX 750
Samsung DVD drive
Mushkin 120 gb SSD
WD 1 TB Caviar Black HDD (problem part?)

So my plan was to install windows on the SSD and transfer the user folders to the Western Digital drive. However, after I select the SSD as the primary drive and try to install, windows says it's unable to format a partition. Error code x80070057. I tried to format the drive myself, no luck. I unplugged it until after windows did some of it's installation process and connected it again while in Audit mode to try and run disk error checking. It's showing that 100 mb are labeled healthy, 931 GB are unallocated. When I check the properties of the drive, it says 0 used space, 0 available space.

Anyone have any idea what's wrong? Should I disconnect the drive and continue installing windows entirely on the SSD until this gets sorted out (I'd then maybe have to re-install windows in order to move the user folders and documents and settings to the bigger drive?)

 

[rolli59]

Yes disconnect it and let windows install on the SSD. After driver install and updates reconnect the HDD and see if you can format it in windows, manage/storage/disk management.
You will not have to reinstall to move things you can do that after windows install! http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part
Make sure your SATA controller is set to ACHI before install.

 

[siggy1387]

Ok. I checked to make sure it was set to ACHI, then installed win7 on the SSD. Turned off the computer, plugged the WD drive back in, tried to run a long format as opposed to a quick format. It took longer but gave me the same result, unable to format the drive.

Thoughts?

 

[smorizio]

try some disk tools...run fidisk/mbr then fisk and remove all the partions. the drive may have a bad partion. the small one is the system restore partion so they may be some windows boot files on the mbr. your better off to see if wd has some disk tools to wipe the drive.

 

[rolli59]

Ok. I checked to make sure it was set to ACHI, then installed win7 on the SSD. Turned off the computer, plugged the WD drive back in, tried to run a long format as opposed to a quick format. It took longer but gave me the same result, unable to format the drive.

Thoughts?

I would just go ahead and RMA the disk instead of spending hrs trying to get it to work, formatting it should just work!

 

[siggy1387]

I would just go ahead and RMA the disk instead of spending hrs trying to get it to work, formatting it should just work!

I was looking into the RMA option when someone said to switch the SATA cables. It worked. Even put the old cable back in, and it's still working. Simple solutions... ridiculous.

 

[rolli59]

I would just go ahead and RMA the disk instead of spending hrs trying to get it to work, formatting it should just work!

I was looking into the RMA option when someone said to switch the SATA cables. It worked. Even put the old cable back in, and it's still working. Simple solutions... ridiculous.

I have never ever heard of SATA cables make a partial connection always either connected or not connected, strange indeed now that it works with both cables.

 

[Boomer83]

Did you have it plugged into an Intel SATA port? If it were in another provider's port, it may have needed extra drivers.

 

[siggy1387]

It's plugged into the same port it was under first install. Eventually through some various trial and error, I managed to get the WD drive to have one 931 gb partition, then after I redid the cables, I was able to format it. Before that I had downloaded Western Digital's two softwares Acronis TrueImage and some other one they offered, and I was unable to re-write the drive to 0 (clear off everything like smorizio suggested).