hard drive format problem

[021310061976]

i'm attempting to reformat a samsung 40gb hard drive. it moves along nice and fast until it reaches 18% and then it starts crawling. it takes at least a half an hour to reach 19%, and it's been at 19% for at least 15 minutes now. it's still active, as i can hear a quick series of clicks about once a second. could bad sectors be to blame?

[Cricket]

Sounds like bad sectors to me.

Get the hard drive diagnostic utility from the Samsung web site and test the hard drive.

:) Cricket

[021310061976]

yeah, that's what i did. their diagnostic app found errors on the drive, and now i'm doing a low-level format.

it's been a long time since i've dealt with anything like this. will the low level format map the bad sectors so they won't be used, and is there still hope of the drive being usable? the last time i saw bad sectors on a hdd was on an old 1.8gb drive that i had in a p-75. it seemed like the bad spots kept multiplying, and i ended up throwing the drive out.

[EzyStvy]

I'd be more worried about the clicking noise. I also wouldn't use the drive as the main drive with the OS on it...Guess only time will tell..

[021310061976]

it's not a really loud clicking noise, it's the normal read/write seek sound a hard drive makes. i pretty much have to put my ear on the drive to hear it.

in any case, the drive goes in my sister's pc from work. her boss is paying me to clean it out and do a reformat/reinstall. i'll have to tell the guy that his hard drive is bad. it's up to him whether the drive is used or not. if he wants to pay me more to buy and install a new drive i have no problem with it. :)

[Markoman01027]

Are you sure about the clicks? RJ from the boards hdad an IBM hard drive that made clicking noises, and then the hard drive went south. I also had an IBM hard drive which made clicking noises.

What type of errors did the diagnostic program find? I think your best bet would be to get a new hard drive and ditch this one.

[021310061976]

trust me, they're just normal hdd seek sounds. i am, however, going to tell my sis to inform her boss that his hard drive is hosed.

the samsung diagnostic app just found "errors" and "problems," without being very specific. it recommended that i perform a low level format and run the diagnostic again. i did, and there were still "problems." i'm not even going to bother with the thing anymore.

[glc]

Send it to the Samsung hard drive graveyard to join its brothers - and trust me, it's a pretty big family.

[commach]

Not trying to be cocky but from my fifteen years hand on experience, this HDD is as good as dead thus see no point trying to low level format and secondary format to reinstall o/s and drivers.