help with hard drive

[ymNA]

ok this is confusing so stay with me

one nice day I decided to turn off the "Write verify" for my Maxtor HD, and after I turned it off, I couldn't get it to boot, after it post and say something like(not sure) ...DMI......couldn't remember. and just stay there 4ever. I tried to turn the "write verify" back on still didn't work , hm so I thought maybe I just use the "windows update" thingy and maybe that was the problem.

I format the thing as normal to reinstall windows, but XP Setup report that the drive is only 8GB. You know how you boot from cd and it install all the neccesary stuff to setup windows and then restart? well it restarted but it start all over again (boot from cd, copy files......)

I tried bunch of things, fdisk (format, del part. everything) and I tried to use Powermax to test the drive , after like 2 hrs of waiting, I finally get my 30GB back and xp install normally, but some how I tried to turn "write verify" off again..i know i 'm stupid and didn't learn my lesson. and now the thing happen again, I tried the same thing (fdisk, powermax) and still cant install xp. I forgot how I did it the first time.

Please help

 

[Xaotic]

Did you by chance get it working through a zero fill or low level format the first time? Low level format will reset the entire drive to factory specs, but be warned some people believe it can render drives unusable or shorten their effective lifetime. I have use several different LLF apps from the drives respective manufacturers with no problem, but....

 

[BadThad]

I agree with X....LLF that drive using Maxtor's util. LLF won't shorten drive life, don't believe what you hear. Most of the LLF rumors started back when LLF was a BIOS option. Most of the time the BIOS would absolutely trash the HDD using LLF, thus the folklore of today began. I've LLF'd hundreds of drives without problem.

Oh yea, don't mess with the write verify setting, HAHAHAHAHA. WTF are you trying to do man? Aren't you familiar with the old saying, "If it aint broke, don't fix it!".

 

[Ridenow]

I don't have much to add. Did you try fdisk /mbr ?

Otherwise I don't have a high opinion of Maxtor and it may have died. If possible you might try it in another computer to test it.