hard drive help pleaseeeee!!!!!

[1low_s10]

ok heres the deal,I have a p4 3 gig pc with xp home installed on a 80 gig wd hard drive.now I got an 250 gig maxtor I want to use as a storage hard drive.it wont let me in the hard drive until I format it,but when I do after it finishes it says was unable to complete format,Ive tried new partitioning and formatting and nothing,but after I try and format the pc does not read the new drive but after I reboot it shows.can some one tell me if I need to make this big drive into 2 partitions and how exactly or what do I need,or is there any software out there that will sucessfully format this drive so I can start using it.

[Zygoat]

as long as your xp is up to date, then there is no way the drive is "too big" to be seen. i believe it was service pack 2 that made this happen but it might have been sp1. in either case, sp3 is out now and if you have 2 or 3 i know you will be fine there.

there are plenty of great, free software programs out there that will format a hard drive for you. i suggest you look at download.com

i would also make sure you are formatting the drive with the "ntfs" file system. if this is what you have been doing and the other software you find still doesn't work you could try using "fat32".

also check the jumpers on the drive and make sure they are set correctly.

[1low_s10]

yea ill try the jumpers and and the software I have tried everything else and nothing is working

[spideyjected]

I pretty much grunt and bash computers over rocks when they act up. That's how knowledgable I am about them.

[csl2006]

I imagine this is what you look like on the computer eric. :)

http://cavemencomputer.com/image51.gif

[87wildside]

hehehe

[Jay-Sliver]

My computer has one of them Handy slide out Cup Holders. Only problem is it likes to go back in after 5 minutes.

Jay

[12sws27]

Mine does the same thing! WTF! It spilled my Big Gulp all over the place!

[87wildside]

Talking to yourself again?

[lord4play]

When mine acts up I either build a new one or buy a new one sometimes I even buy old ones and fix them up

[lord4play]

systems right now
home built pc running XP PRO/Ubuntu 300 gig hard drive and 250 gig hard drive dual core 2.0 clocked to 2300/2299 what ever if fells like reading at air cooled 8 fans (small tornado inside case) dual video in SLI and 4 gigs ram and the laptop 2.0 4 gigs ram and 500 gig hard drive

going to buy either one or two of the little 9 inch net books soon

[Zygoat]

you need a processor upgrade.

[Clarkjs21]

Not to be on topic here or anything but make sure that you computer is compatible with whatever hard drive you got.

When I went to put a 200gig hard drive in my brothers computer it was the wrong SATA and the exact thing you are describing happened. I went and got the other kind of SATA and it worked just fine. (Im sleep deprived and cant think what the two SATAs are called, and too lazy to look it up)

[Zygoat]

the only different kind of sata's i know of are different speeds
1.5gb/s and 3 gb/s.

in either case they are backwards compatible so it should work, it just might be slower.

there is also esata but that is different.

[1low_s10]

how do you tell if its compatible with it?

[Zygoat]

if it pluggs in, its compatible.

[lord4play]

if it pluggs in, its compatible.

huh?

personally I would check the motherboard and make sure the bios supports the drive might need to update bios I don't know how many times I bought a mother board with sata and had to update the bios right away to support the hard drive

I like computers fixing them is relaxing oh and Hi my name is Jake and I'm an addict really I can stop tinkering with computers any time I want

[Zygoat]

if they physically plug together then they should be compatible.

[C4Tom]

Is it a new or used drive? If it's sata then it's also cable select, which means you'll need to go into bios and select the position or drive # for that drive.

[1low_s10]

yes its sata and yes its used but I wasnt aware of that thanks man.