Did I Receive a Faulty Hard Drive?

S

saku

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
316
I received a hard drive from a fellow member the other day. He said that he's been using this drive for 6 months in Raid0 with no problems.

I was setting up Windows and there was a 30gb partition on there, the unpartitioned space was 260GB. The total drive space is 160GB so this is not normal, I have never seen this before and I have been building computers for over 8 years. I wiped the 30GB partition and was able to install Windows on it, but when trying to partition/format the rest of the unpartioned space I get errors and the format will not complete. It goes up to 100% and then says the disc may be damaged. I tried formatting from the Windows bootup cd and from within Windows and both the same result.



He mentioned the notion of me somehow damaging the HD, which I then replied:
This is a MAJOR inconvenience for both of us and I hope that we can get things sorted out in the end. By all means if you have a possible solution to the problem at hand please let me know and we won't have to go through all this trouble.

Let me ask you this... what do I have to gain by lying about your drive? Nothing whatsoever. This is just causing me more shipping charges and still no hard drive, which I really need for a new build.
Click to expand...


I ran the seagate diagnostic tests with the bootable floppy and the 30GB passed with inconsistencies and the "260GB" partition failed.
He has no heat but substantial Ebay (I verified it was him) and he wants me to ship his items back first. I don't really know what to do and am somewhat pissed off right now.

Sorry for the long post, advice would be appreciated.
 
His packaging was top notch so I know that it wasnt damaged en route to my place. Also, it was a cross trade, but he wants me to ship his items back first even though he sent me the defunct product?

I really don't feel comfortable doing that, hopefully he will be more accomodating this matter when he gets back online.
 
Not like you've got anything to gain from holding on to a faulty hard drive. See if he'll cross-ship with you the same as when you traded to begin with.
 
He just replied via pm saying that I might have dropped it or maybe it was damaged during shipping and I don't want to accept that I "didn't ask for insurance".

He stills wants me to ship first even though hes the one at fault. He said that if it works in his comp then he will send the cpu back, which is not reassuring in the least. He was running this drive in raid, so I am assuming unless he has that other drive he was running it with (I think he sold it) he's going to have the same problems as I.

I am trying to contact the member that received the other drive to see if he is having the same problems.
 
Have you tried checking the manufacturer's website for a utility to do a low-level format of the drive?
 
I don't think I should have to resort to that just for it to function properly. I am going to try formatting with Partition Magic to see if I have any luck.

I think if I talked to the member that received the other HD that this drive was raided with, I can somewhat verify whether or not this drive is indeed faulty.
 
A low level format is probably your best bet. I'm guessing the partitions are messed up cause it came out of a RAID array, so low level formatting might just fix the problems. It really isn't all that hard, either.
 
Why don't you completely reformat the drive and remove the partitions?

I don't think the drive is bad at this point, I think it was used in RAID0 and now you have it as a single drive, the MBR will read funny for sure unless you low level format the entire drive.

http://www.ranish.com/part/

Download this somewhat simple partition tool and wipe the drive of the MBR, it easier to use then it looks really. REMOVE ANY OTHER DRIVE FROM YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE USING THIS PROGRAM! Only plug in the drive you want to format, that way NO mistakes.

I think you'll be good to go after that. At least try.

I'll work with you via PM's or over the phone if you want.
 
Thanks for your replies guys, can I just use partition magic to wipe it out? If not I will use that program you provided Racer.

Thanks again.
 
Partition magic might be able to do it, but it's somewhat doubtful in my mind. If the drive is not physically faulty, then the seller is under no obligation to do anything about it really. As far as he is concerned, he sold a perfectly sound functional drive. Unless he explicitly stated beforehand that he would low level format it himself, cleaning up the data on the drive is your responsibility now that you've purchased it. If it turns out it is indeed physically faulty, then the seller owes you a refund.
 
He told me he would "zero out" the drive and also said that he would wipe it out. I think Racer is right about it not reading right because it came straight from Raid. If he had completely reformatted the drive like he said he would, then I wouldn't be having all these problems.

EDIT: The drive is also making some discernable noises which don't sit well with me.
 
It seems to fit. You stated it was partitioned into a 30GB and a 260GB portion. This fits fairly well with the size you'd expect from a pair of 160GB drives in a RAID formation. Although the manufacturer states 160GB, they consider 1000bytes to be a kilobyte instead of 1024 as the OS sees it, so two 160's would add up to 320 and show up in the OS as roughly 290. This is consistent with a 30 and 260 gigabyte partition.

If he stated he would zero the drive before shipping, he may not have lived up to that part of the bargain. Whether or not you allow that to be reflected in your heatware evaluation of the trade is up to you but if it were me, I'd at least mention it. That's just my opinion though.
 
he may have zeroed the partitionwhile still running the raid0.
he should have broken the raid in the utility and then zero it.

raid0 drive taken out of an array like that can be a B..... to reset.
 
I think youre right rhelaine, that would have prevented all this. I am never cross shipping with a new member again.

Okay I partitioned a 112GB D: drive with the unallocated space, but Partition Magic still reads that their is 152GB of unallocated space left.

Any advice?
 
FYI partion magic sucks when it comes to raids :(

I would try what the member above mentioned and do a low level format. Usually this clears up any raid 0 issues. Good luck bud :( hope it all works out.
 
Thank you everyone for your support. I guess I will have to do the low level format. I am hoping that solves my problems with this drive. No apology from the seller, but I wasn't expecting much from him.

I really apreciate all the help from everyone!
 
Well right now the drive not being complete formatted correctly is not the sellers fault.

Load up that program from a floppy, a bootable floppy and type part at the A prompt.

Then just clear the MBR, clear all partions listed with the DEL key after you highlight them, and I think F2 to save.

Put in a windows install disk, format the ENTIRE drive to C: and put windows on it.

It should work like a charm.
 
He already has the Seagate Utilities disk... why don't you just use that to do the low-level format. There should be an option on there for that. I have used it many of times for testing and formatting. Never one prob...

Also, when you tried to install Windows did you delete all of the partitions listed and then format? OR Did you just try to format and install on the partitions that were there? Why would you even want to just format single partitions? I personally would have formatted/de-partitioned the entire drive before I went ahead and tried anything else with the drive.
 
If the drive turns out bad, the best thing to do is to RMA the drive with Seagate and have the other guy pay for the return shipping.
 
RacerX27 said:
Well right now the drive not being complete formatted correctly is not the sellers fault.

.
Click to expand...
it IS the sellers responbility to be sure the drive is %100 working and correctly before shipping, since this was a rad 0 drive, he should of removed the drive and formated it as if it were a single drive and then sold it - not put a 30g partition on it then sold it.

Sounds more like he took it out of the raid array, had this same problem, didnt tell the seller then passed off blame to the buyer.
 
First off, the member I was dealing with is dylanblada and I would be cautious when dealing with him.

Yes it worked after low level formatting it, but he told me he zeroed out the drive and then called me a moron even though he's the one that left a Raid array on a supposedly zeroed drive. Also, this drive sounds like its eating cereal when it is active, sadly enough it is the loudest component in my system. I should have known better to cross-trade with a new member and that is my own fault. I bought an HD of the same specs from d4nnn at the same time and I had no issues whatsoever and it runs like a dream.

I sent him this thread in a pm and told him he could respond, but as I expected he didn't want to say anything. Also, afterwards when he took note of this thread (like a week later) he sent me a very nasty pm calling me all kinds of names, I laughed it off and told him I would delete all pms he sends me from now on. Out of courtesy, I did not even post his name until this post, but after that pm, I think he deserves to be called out.

He has some issues, that is all can say.
 
glad the drive worked after your ordeal :) you need to put all this behind you now
 
Might not wanna keep anything valuable on that drive...if it makes that much noise it's bound to fail within a month or so, especially if it doesn't have any active cooling on it.

Will definitely keep that screenname written down somewhere. I don't wanna be buying any noisy drives later. :D Thanks for the warning.
 
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