Please Help - Cannot Format Hard Drive

[PC_User]

I tried to format a WD 1TB drive a few weeks ago and could not. I used Windows Disk Managment and it would get to 99% and give the following message: "The format did not complete successfully." I scanned it and it found some read/write problems and bad sectors so I RMA'ed it.

Now I received the same drive (again). I tried to do a full format with Windows Disk Management and again...same story. It's hard for me to believe that I received 2 DOA drives, so what is wrong? After this unsuccessful format, the drive shows up in My Computer but Windows asks me if I want to format it when I try to access it.

I tried using the Western Digital Lifeguard Tools utility to format it (quick format) and it says that it is successful but when I double-click on the hard drive, windows say "The disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" It just shows the hard disk as file system RAW with 0 bytes.

Could it be that my Windows Disk Management kills the hard drive and makes it impossible for other programs to format it? What could be the problem? I need to solve this asap and now I'm getting worried... Please help!

 

[[LYL]Homer]

Try running WD's low level diagnostic on it. (boot from a cd of the lifeguard tools)

 

[PC_User]

Try running WD's low level diagnostic on it. (boot from a cd of the lifeguard tools)

And run the tests from DOS?

 

[Dually]

And run the tests from DOS?

Would recommend using the ISO of Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS

 

[PC_User]

Would recommend using the ISO of Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS

I'll give that a try. Maybe there's some program/service running in Windows which is preventing the drive from being formatted.

 

[Dually]

Maybe there's some program/service running in Windows which is preventing the drive from being formatted.

Also could be a bad cable or inadequate power supply.