Is my HD dead?

[carp]

Hey all! I tried to add partitions to my HD with the fdisk command that I use when I startup with my boot disk. But when I try to add one all it says is:

Number of fixed Drives: 1


Press Esc to go back.

SO I press Esc but nothing happens and it doesnt go back. I have to reboot to get back to command prompt, The same thing happens when I try to set an active partition and its not the boot disk because it works in the computer I am using right now (Note: I am trying this on a differnt computer then the one I'm typing this message with). And I took the HD out of the other computer and put it in this computer (the one i'm typing this message with) and it still doesnt work, Any ideas?

[dark.journey]

in order to add partiotions you must first remove the partitions already there ! try using a freeware partitioning tool like ranish http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-...ml?tag=lst-0-1
pressing ESC will just take you back through the submenus of FDISK until you end up back in DOS

the proper steps are


*delete partitions
*create partitions
*exit



note FDISK will destroy all information currently on the HDD

[Rick Bull]

Yeah that sounds about right to me too. I'd just like to add that I've found on older PCs that sometimes after formatting you have to go into the BIOS and re-detect the HDDs.

[carp]

I have no OS on the other computer, is it a DOS based program?

[dark.journey]

partition magic runs in dos as well as windows - im not sure about ranish but if you have no OS on the other hard disk and you have no information on there that you wish to save, then follow these steps.

c:\> FDISK
(it will ask if you want to enable large disk support if you have a drive bigger than 2gb answer yes otherwise it shouldnt matter.)

once in fdisk select the option to remove any existing partitions (option 3 i think)
if you have more than one partition on there goto delext else go to delpri
delext
select remove extended partition and / or logical drives it will ask which drives you want to remove - select them by letter e.g D then it will ask you for the volume name - which it shows on the screen. if it doesnt have one - just press enter.finally in this section remove the extended dos partition then go back to delete menu

del pri:
now delete the primary dos partition

go back to the main menu and select create partition (option 1 i think)

create the partition you desire - eg primary dos (NECESSARY for win9x) extended DOS; non-dos
tell it how much space to allocate to each drive

when u are done - esc out of fdisk
and reboot with your boot disk in the drive
type FDISK /MBR
format the partitions - (not doing this will cause the drive to be inaccessible until you do)
then install your OS - and you're off


*edit
you can check if your HDD is already partitioned by typing FDISK /STATUS end edit

[carp]

Above help doesnt work. WHen I tell it to make a new partition it says:

Number if fixed disks: 1

Press ESC to go back.

I press ESC and nothing happens, I need to reboot to get off that screen.

That partition program says it formats FAT FS's. Windows 2000 uses NTFS.

[dark.journey]

did you delete the primary dos partition?

[carp]

It says there isn't one.

[dark.journey]

if the drive is showing no primary DOS partition and you know it has not been NTFS or a non-DOS or extended DOS partition then the likelihood is that the HDD is unusable.

[carp]

So the HD is dead?

[dark.journey]

probably - I can't say positvely without seeing it - but it sounds like it - you could try fdisk-ing the MBR and then see if you can FDISK after that. - thats about all you have left.

[carp]

I dont see how it would be dead. Its brand new, Except I had it in a computer as a slace once and I had 2GIGs of music on it. But thats all deleted I think.