Hard drive woes

[darkweb4 at totalmail.com]

Kurt

here is the link to the WD diagnostic tools i talked about earlier:

http://support.wdc.com/download/

they are called "Data Lifeguard Tools"  version 10 should work, but they have an older version 
archive just in case.

here are also a few Q and A from their "knowlege base" that i thought might help:

Question 
  Why is my drive only detected intermittenly or only when I warm boot the computer? (i.e., when I 
reset the computer after it is already turned on)? 
 
  Answer 
  Generally, if the drive is detected on a warm boot but not a cold boot, the drive is not being 
allowed enough time to spin up before the system BIOS queries it. In most systems, you will find a 
Quick Boot or Quick Power On Self Test option in the BIOS. By disabling this, you will slow down 
the boot process just enough to allow the drive more time to spin up. If you do not see one of 
those two options look for a Hard Disk Boot Delay or similar setting and set it to at least 6 
seconds. Another way to give the drive more time to spin up completely is to enable Boot Up Floppy 
Seek or similar BIOS settings.

Also, the hard drive may not be properly configured or even detected in the system BIOS. Often this 
occurs when the drive is alone on the data cable. If this is the case, the drive should be jumperd 
as a single, NOT a master. To jumper the drive as single either remove the jumper shunt completely 
or place it on pins 4-6. A defective data cable may also be responsible. 

Question 
  Why do the partitions I created with FDISK or Data Lifeguard EZ-Install disappear after I reboot 
the system? 
 
  Answer 
  Check your BIOS for a setting similar to Boot Sector Protect or Virus Protection. This setting 
can protect the Master Boot Record of the drive, preventing changes to the partition table. If you 
find this setting, disable it and try the procedure again. 

See, I can try to be helpful without a smartass answer :)

--- Kurt Kessler <kessler2k at yahoo.com> wrote:
>I have a 30GB Western Digital drive that does not want
>to seem to format. I have tried to fdisk it several
>times, to no avail. I finally have a bit of time, so I
>just decided to try and install linux on it to kill
>anything that may be on it, and perhaps fix this
>problem. My bios (which is current) sees it half of
>the time.. (yes, sometimes it do, and sometimes it do
>not) I put in my RH 8 cd and booted, its going through
>everything just fine, untill its time to
>partition/format the drive. It tells me that it is an
>"invalid file system" and asks if i want to retry or
>abort. I clicked retry several times, then it says
>"the disk is not initialized" and asks me if I would
>like to initialize it. I click yes, and then get "An
>error has occured, no valid decvices were found on
>which to create new file systems. Please check your
>hardware for the cause of this problem"
>
>So what in the hell can I do to fix this??? I can only
>boot into windoze if this drive is set as a slave, and
>even then, I cannot read or write to the disk. Fdisk
>will NOT view the drive. However, windows will show it
>as having a 23GB partition and a WIN98 directory on
>it. Im lost here... Any help will be GREATLY
>appreciated.
>
>Kurt
>
>=====
>32 bit extensions and a graphical
>shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system
>originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written
>by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition.
>
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