I have 2 hard drives my first is running Windows XP and my second wont work at all..I am trying to use it as 100% storage. It is a Maxtor 40Gb and for some reason I try to format in windows and it doesnt come up with error but I lags my system real bad and wont open any programs but it does not progress towards the finished format. There may be errors or something. I was wondering if anyone had any programs or ideas about what is wrong? Thanks\nIve tried looking on internet, with no success.
201954
You will find some diagnostic tools and low level format tools on www.maxtor.com (select software downloads). If the diagnostics fail then it is time to replace.
575863
Please don't use partition magic. !!!\nThat is known to ruin your scenario.\n\nFirst of all, from my understandiing, you previously had 1 Harddrive and you partitioned it in 2 areas WHILE installing.\n\n- Okay, if you only have one harddrive in your pc, I recommend you to leave it that way, cause what if your computer doesn't work anymore(your windows/linux) messes up. You could always place your important files on the second harddrive and reformat the first hardrive if you ever need. That will reduce problems.\n\n- But assuming you still want to merge C and D, I recommend formatting both harddrives . Sorry mate, thats the only secure way. While reinstalling your operating system, you could have the option of making it partions (c and d or more) or leave it as one full hardrive (by deleting partition from d)\n\n- If you use partition magic, 3 out of 2 people fail. Partition Magic doesn't know pretty well how to retreat the harddrives, it will become slower. It is not simply saying to move the pointer of the 2nd hd to the 1st. They are completly different set of pointers. On the minimum case Partition Magic will work, but your taking risks.\n\nSo what do I recommend? Backup your files to somewhere, and restore them after your fresh install.\n\nOr you have two separate harddrives that you want to make into 1 big harddrive.\n- You need to use a Raid Controller to merge both harddrives into one big driver. Search for RAID5. And follow instructions there.
273860
You may need to load some special drivers.  I believe Windows XP will only support like a 138GB partition.  I think the drivers should have come with you hard drive or you probably can download them from Western Digital at their website.  Check out this PDF there is instructions on page 2 http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2079-001026.pdf
589793
Depending on how old the hd is and the os you're running, it's kind of hard to tell if a full format is worth it.  If the HD was used for Windows 95, the hd may be using the FAT32 system.  In this case, if you're using 95 on that old hd, try to get a dos prompt up.  You'll need a boot disk for your floppy drive.  If it's anything higher, chances are your hd is toast.\n\nBe a little more specific about your computer and os cause that'll be a lot easier to solve.
438353
BEFORE you format your hard drive or try anything drastic try switching out your RAM modules.\n\nOccasionally a RAM module goes bad. If there is more than one installed take one out and boot, if still the same problem replace it and take the other one out and boot.  If problem goes away you know you have a bad memory module that you can cheaply and easily replace.\n\nIf this is not the case then it could be any number of things such as a bad device driver, a damaged device, bad hdd, bad m/b, and so on.  You can eventually figure it out, but not easily or cheaply.  It will save you a lot of time and stress to just take it to a shop at that point.
281681
What you have is a problem with the hard drive. Either the operating system on the drive has been corrupted, files necessary for it to run have been deleted, or the drive itself has failed. Deleted or corrupted files can be caused by age, a virus or trojan, or unjudicious "cleanup" of the wrong files.\n\nEither way, unless you know a lot about computers, you'll need to either replace the hard drive or format it. And both these things will require you to re-install Windows from a CD, which you say you don't have.\n\nSorry - sounds like time to get a new computer :( and he's lost whatever data was on that one.
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Is your D: drive your primary drive that holds Windows and other programs? On my computer I have a single hard drive partitioned into two sections the smaller section (Drive C:) is were I keep my programs and I use the rest (Drive D:) as storage space. \n\nNow the reason I ask if your D: drive is your primary is because I get that message (except mine says Drive C: low on disk space) whenever I have a large memory demand with multiple open programs and files. Even though both drives are techically on one physical harddrive, it doesn't write to the other drive (D: in my case) even though it could be completely empty.\n\nIf your D: drive is the primary (with Windows and your applications) then it could be your getting this message not because of actual stored data (like a picture, movie, or music file) but a cache limitation and the computer basically doesn't have enough drive space to create the cashe for the programs you have open. If you run only a few programs (or fewer than you normally do) that might help.\n\nAs for changing the location of where files are saved... well by default files that you download go into your "My Documents" folder on the primary drive where Windows runs. When you save a file (or use the "save as" option) it often brings up a window that allows you to specify where you want it stored and usually the last folder you saved to becomes the new default folder that is initially brought up the next time you save something.
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There's something wrong with your hard disk. If you can capture all the writing that comes up after the error, that would help, but in general, this is something you will not be able to diagnose and fix over the Internet. You will probably get a recommendation from someone to format the C drive and reinstall Windows-- don't do that yet because you'll lose all your data, and it might be too drastic a step. But it definitely sounds like the disk itself is the issue and you'll need to take the computer to be repaired.\n\nBasically chkdsk is a system tool that checks the integrity of the disk. If it keeps croaking on 79 then that's where your problem is. It could be logical--- the operating system has lost track of how to count and identify the files--- or it could be physical--- a bad sector (storage area) on the disk. \n\nIf you can make the error come up again and copy down the first 2 lines then post them here (or PM them to me) we can see if we can get some better insight.  The important lines are the ones beginning with "STOP"  and probably says something like IRQL_LESS_OR_EQUAL or like that.
656360
Try to get an external USB drive with a cd rom and do it from there, since XP is still running.  Also a very strong recomendation, get another copy of win xp and make sure that it has the Service Pack 2.  And if none of these work, try to get your HD out of the case and make the instalation on someone else computer, putting your HD as a slave and running the instalation on it.\n\nHope I´ve given you a guide to solving your issue.
49362
There might be multiple partitions, i.e a 2GB C: drive and a 18GB D: drive. If this is the case then you can, of course, still use all of the drive the way it is, but if you wanted to make it all one partition you'd need to format the drive and reinstall windows.
72373
I'm assuming you've already installed the drivers and whatnot.\n\n1. Open My Computer\n\n2. Right-click on the Maxtor drive's icon\n\n3. Choose Format ...
4854
I hope there wasn't anything on that drive you were attached to.  I don't know what your particular problem is but it is almost impossible to do that much damage to Windows XP without knowing what you are doing.  Either the kids did it by accident (unlikely) or depending on their age they knew exactly what they were doing.  Either way there are two things you can try, the first way might save your data.\n\nFind your XP restore disc put it in the CD drive and let it boot from the CD.  Once you have done that there will be a "repair this installation of Windows XP option", you can try that and it will attempt to replace or overwrite damaged or corrupt files.  If it works you will have your computer and your files back.  After you do that I would recommend that you back up your data and then again using your Windows XP disc, format the drive and reinstall Windows so you can start from a clean slate.\n\nIf it doesn't repair the installation then you will just have to reformat and reinstall Windows but you will loose all your data.  Make sure you have the driver discs that came with your PC as well, as you will need those so that all the hardware on it works properly once you have reinstalled XP.
616425
As I said in my previous post (maybe you missed it), the reason you can't use the Windows XP drive on the laptop with ME is because the Windows XP drive was most likely formatted as NTFS.  Windows ME will not recognize the NTFS format.  Only Windows 2000 and Windows XP will recognize a NTFS formatted drive and they will also recognize FAT formatted drives as well.  Most people are using Windows XP anyway so this really isn't an issue for most.  In your situation, well, you'll have to get access to a machine that has Windows 2000 or XP on it, otherwise... you won't be able to access the data from Windows 98 or ME.  Sorry but that's just the way it is.
610537
What I would do is re-install Windows and all your software on the new HD and slave your current crashed HD without formatting see if you can recover any data from it.  Here are instructions on HD installation. http://www.basichardware.com/HowTo_Install_Hard_Drive.html
586686
Well, U should clean it up! If the O.S. drive (Which has got windows installed on) is full, try to uninstall the useless programs which have been installed on ur PC, and don't install any other program on D drive(If windows has been settled on D) If u wanna have ur O.S. on C u should format D and C then install windows on C again which is a lil bit tough for a beginner...\nGood luck;)
478672
Make sure you have the latest servicepack installed (SP2). You'll need it anyways if you wanna keep receiving updates from the Windows site.\nIf the BIOS detects the harddrive in full, start XP and goto Disk Management > Action > Rescan disks and see if it will pick up the correct size.\nIf the BIOS doesn't recognize the harddrive as 320 Gb, you'll need to find an updated BIOS for your motherboard. Check the site of the manufacturer for that (most motherboards made after 2003 will be able to recognize large harddrives).\nAs a last resort, you can goto the website of the manufacturer of the harddrive to see if they have extra drivers that will solve the problem for you.
385266
I am not certain that the trouble is the hard drive format. Whether you format a drive in FAT or NTFS, it will not cause the drive to be reported incorrectly. That is almost always caused by the BIOS or operating system misreporting the size of the drives. \n\nOlder motherboards, and older operating systems, had drive size limitations, they can't recognize drives over a certain size. \n\nYou should check the BIOS to see how it is reporting the drive sizes and go from there. Here is a good story on FAT and NTFS.\nhttp://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/l0606/16l06/16l06.asp\n\n\nIf you are still hoping to convert your hard drive to NTFS, here is some help from Microsoft:\nhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881/