"C" drive partitioning

Newbie Forum
#1

Hello All,

I was getting the “Drive Failure” notice on my aging Sony Vaio PCV RX-670, and purchased a Western Digital Caviar SE16. I’m stuck at getting it formatted. I have the CD drive at the top of the list in the Bios and starting the puter with the OS disk inserted the 1st thing it wants to do id set the partitions. Problem 1…it has 30GB as the maximum for “C”. Problem 2…when I try to contiue it runs to about 90% and just sits there. Not locked up, the timer is running, and I have let it run for over 12 hours. Can some one help, please?

#2

A couple of questions. What type of hard drive interface is it, IDE or Sata? From what I can tell it should be SATA. What type of drive did you remove, IDE or Sata? Which OS are you trying to install? If you go into Setup (your bios) does it show the full capacity of the new drive?

#3

[qanda]This thread is about the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKB - hard drive - 500GB - ATA-100. Click here to see full specs[/qanda]Hello Every body,
I have posted this in another section, but thought about it and decided it HAS to be a newbe question. Surely some one has lost their main drive on this board. I’m using the neighbors puter until I get mine going again.
The “Drive Failure” warnings were coming up so I bought a WD SE-16. Physical installation was no problem. Trying to format the drive, I’m getting no where. With the DVD drive listed on top in the Bios, and using the installation disks, it needs to have the partitions set. It will only let me do 30GB on “C” which I’m sure can be changed later if I ever get the OS installed. After OK-ing the setting, it will run to 90% and just sit there with the timer running. Is it posible it has to run more than 8 hours?? I must have to do something else. Would some one please enlighten me? I plan on doing my 1st build and will certainly have this come up again.

Sony Vaio PCV RX-670 1.8 G
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
1 G ram
Win XP SP-2

#4

Hi Whappo,
It’s IDE.
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKB 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive. No SATA connections. It’s on the old side. Going to try my 1st build, but need this working for the family.
Old drive was Maxtor.
Max LBA capacity 500111MB. (whatever LBA is)

#5

Is that a new drive or used drive?? What kinda cable do you have hooked up to it pin wise?? Did you try to hook it up to another computer to see if it could format it?

#6

** Two threads merged **

@skoville - instead of crossposting (which isn’t allowed), you could have asked a moderator to move your original thread here. :wink:

#7

Hi,quote=skoville;2164837
The “Drive Failure” warnings were coming up so I bought a WD SE-16. Physical installation was no problem. Trying to format the drive, I’m getting no where.[/quote]
Some chipsets of that era were not capable to handle HDDs larger than 128 GB. Check if such a limitation is known, and if there is a Bios update that addresses this issue.
Also check your HDD with WD’s diagnostic tool in case the drive is bad.
Additionally: Make sure the drive is configured as Master and it is connected to the end of the IDE cable (a new cable might be a good idea either).

With the DVD drive listed on top in the Bios, and using the installation disks, it needs to have the partitions set. It will only let me do 30GB on “C” which I’m sure can be changed later if I ever get the OS installed.
No, you can’t.
Have another look at the jumpers if a “32GB clip” jumper is set.
Make sure, your Bios setting is set to “Auto” for your HDD. It should be recognised with its full size (approx 480 GB).

Michael

#8

Thanks Arachne. (darn newbe’s)

Hi mciahel and Whappo,

Some chipsets of that era were not capable to handle HDDs larger than 128 GB.

I have been using a Seagate 250 GB external HDD. (USB) I updated the Bios prior to the installation, which started the computer to lock up pretty often. Tried to reinstall the old Bios without success.

Make sure the drive is configured as Master and it is connected to the end of the IDE cable

Master, yes. End of cable, I’ll give that a try.

Have another look at the jumpers if a “32GB clip” jumper is set.

Not sure where to look for that, but it makes sense.

Hi coolcolors,

The cable is an 80 wire about a year old. The drive is new from Newegg. No extra computer to try it on.

#9

Ooops.
Correction. The 80 wire cable is what I updated when I put a new DVD burner in. The HDD cable is original.
The jumper on the new HDD is set on " 2 c s ". The next two are " sl " and " ma ". Not being sure what " 2 c s " is, I’ll wait for reply before moving it to ma.

#10

Yo-

If FIRST or ONLY drive - attach drive at END of 80 wire cable - set to “ma”

If it is a SECOND drive - attach in MIDDLE of 80 wire cable and set to “sl”

(BOTH cables should be [U]80 wire cables [/U]for best performance-eh!!)

#11

Thanks, Mike.
Thanks all.

#12

Well, I hate to say it. It still stops toward the end of the partitioning phase.
Can I kick it now?

#13

Sounds like this drive was purchased as OEM.
Get everything you need from here: (even jumper settings, scroll to your drive)
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=502&lang=en

Go for 11.2 for DOS (CD) or (floppy if you wish)
Before you try to load XP use this bootable disk to go in and partition/format your drive.
Then try loading XP in the partition that you have already prepared with the WD partitioning utility.

I think I used 11.0 the last time and it was very satisfactory.

#14

Just in case you still haven’t found this out.

CS = Cable Select / MA = Master / SL = Slave.

#15

Hi jflan,
Giving it a go, now. Yes OEM.

beef barley,

Yes, finnally got it. Thank you.

#16

I’ll have to play with it tomorrow. I don’t think the computer I’m on has the appropriate burning software. It copies the iso but I’m guessing Nero would extract it.

#17

Hi,[quote=skoville;2165056]The jumper on the new HDD is set on " 2 c s ". The next two are " sl " and " ma ". Not being sure what " 2 c s " is, I’ll wait for reply before moving it to ma.[/quote][B]ma[/B]ster [B]sl[/B]ave [B]c[/B]able[B]s[/B]elect. CS setting should be okay also provided there is no other drive on the same cable, or both drives are set as CS.

[quote=skoville;2165210]I’ll have to play with it tomorrow. I don’t think the computer I’m on has the appropriate burning software. It copies the iso but I’m guessing Nero would extract it.[/quote]Not extracting. Use Nero’s “burn disc image” option. Or use Imgburn, which is free.

Michael

#18

Okay…I know I’m on the right track here, but after running the 11.2 utility and putting in the OS disk, I’m still taken to “creating a partition for the HDD”. Which of course stops at the usual point. I don’t think that should come up at all, so I have a supremely stupid question. The only way I know of to re-boot after running the WD utility is to shut down the computer with the power switch. Is there another way? Could this be why the partitioning isn’t sticking?

Before purchasing I must have read 20 reviews of people who bought this drive. Not one mentioned the WD site or what was involved. LOL

#19

The utility should report that which has been accomplished and you would select [B]Done[/B] or [B]ESC[/B] (escape) to exit the utility.
When exiting a DOS app it is not uncommon to have to use the power button to shut off the computer.

I’m thinking that maybe a [B]Primary[/B] partition or file system type (choose [B]NTFS[/B] or [B]FAT32[/B]) wasn’t selected and Windows is still trying to “prepare” a partition.

Choose FAT32 if you use older apps that will not run in NTFS.

Tutorial:

Note that when you go back in you may have to use the erase function, if for instance, a Linux file system was errantly selected.

There is also the possibility (not as likely, though) that your XP disc is corrupt/damaged or there is something wrong with the hard drive (use the WD utilities to check).

#20

Thanks for hanging in there with me j, have to go make the donuts now and work on this tonight.