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Lacie "Big Drive" XP Formatting Problem
I have recently purchased one of those new external Lacie "Big Drive" 500gb firewire. The problem is that I cannot get it to format no matter what I try with Windows XP. If I put it on a macintosh via firewire, I can create partitions and format it fine. However, I didn't buy it for my Mac, I bought it for my PC.
Using Disk Manager in XP lets me create partitions, but everytime I goto format one, it goes to 100% and then says Was Unable To Complete the Format. I've made 500GB NTFS partitions and 5MB FAT partitions and everything in between. I had no luck getting it to work under Windows 2000, either.
The drive is recognized by my disk management programs, but I just can't get it to format. I called their tech support and they gave me a whole 3 things to try - none of which worked. I've updated the firmware (using the macintosh tools on an iMac), thinking that when I plug it with updated firmware into my PC it would make a difference, but no go.
I'm about to return this thing, which is a shame because it's a huge drive and it's portable. Anyone have any ideas on what I can try?
Using Disk Manager in XP lets me create partitions, but everytime I goto format one, it goes to 100% and then says Was Unable To Complete the Format. I've made 500GB NTFS partitions and 5MB FAT partitions and everything in between. I had no luck getting it to work under Windows 2000, either.
The drive is recognized by my disk management programs, but I just can't get it to format. I called their tech support and they gave me a whole 3 things to try - none of which worked. I've updated the firmware (using the macintosh tools on an iMac), thinking that when I plug it with updated firmware into my PC it would make a difference, but no go.
I'm about to return this thing, which is a shame because it's a huge drive and it's portable. Anyone have any ideas on what I can try?
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well that sux...i'd say just to return it to them for another one and if it still doesnt work then ask for a refund :)
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would creating partitions and thjen formatting the HDD be out of the question.......
it may work.
H
it may work.
H
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Well, we've decided to just send it back and get a lower capacity external drive from another company. I tried the registry entry and it didn't make a difference, plus I am not sure if I would have to put that registry entry on every computer that I plug this drive into. The drive works fine on a OS 9.1 iMac so I don't think it's a hardware issue. There's just something about the drive that doesn't play well with all these PCs I've tried it on.
As it'll be portable between many other varied PC systems we're just gonna go with a smaller, different drive that we know works, instead of playing troubleshooting Help Desk for every PC we plug the Lacie in (assuming we can somehow format it). Thanks for the help anyway guys..
As it'll be portable between many other varied PC systems we're just gonna go with a smaller, different drive that we know works, instead of playing troubleshooting Help Desk for every PC we plug the Lacie in (assuming we can somehow format it). Thanks for the help anyway guys..
We have observed similar issues with 200GB – 250GB ATAPI drives. Additionally we have tested the proposed registry solution, verified 48-bit LBA addressing at the BIOS level, etc. after applying XP SP1 and XP SP2. Without success.
On the flip side, Server 2003 worked with the aforementioned drives without issues on the same hardware platform. Given that, we streamlined a bootable installation CD of XP pro with SP2 and reinstalled XP pro with SP2 from scratch. So far we haven’t observed the partitioning, format, data read/write errors. In short, it appears to be working correctly.
We are keeping a close watch on this however as we are still apprehensive. We plan on falling back to the original XP installation (KDB version) and running ATAPI.SYS through the kernel debugger with SP1 and SP2 in an attempt to ascertain the problem in detail.
Instructions on streamlining XP SP2 installation can be found at:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm
Cheers, -RF
On the flip side, Server 2003 worked with the aforementioned drives without issues on the same hardware platform. Given that, we streamlined a bootable installation CD of XP pro with SP2 and reinstalled XP pro with SP2 from scratch. So far we haven’t observed the partitioning, format, data read/write errors. In short, it appears to be working correctly.
We are keeping a close watch on this however as we are still apprehensive. We plan on falling back to the original XP installation (KDB version) and running ATAPI.SYS through the kernel debugger with SP1 and SP2 in an attempt to ascertain the problem in detail.
Instructions on streamlining XP SP2 installation can be found at:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm
Cheers, -RF
I can confirm decker12's comments, and add that I had the same problem with LaCie's 160GB d2 Extreme Hard Drive, Triple Interface model. After trying two of these LaCie units, I bought a Western Digital unit with nominally identical specs, which installed quickly and completely successfully. If our experience is commonplace, one has to wonder why LaCie technical support continues to advise customers that they probably received defective units, if in fact there is a compatibility problem with certain WinXP environments. One of the LaCie tech reps suggested the possibility (in addition to the chance that both drives were defective) that my Windows XP might be corrupted and that I could consider contacting Microsoft or reinstalling Windows, but stating that it would be going "beyond the boundaries" LaCie established for the tech support reps for them to offer any further assistance in diagnosing Windows-related problems. My experience suggests, however, that the problem is not with Windows itself but with LaCie's interface to Windows XP. In the hope that we can narrow down the configurations in which the LaCie drives are unlikely to format, I'll mention that I connect my external hard drive via standard Firewire (400, not 800) to a WinXP Pro SP2 system.
I have had a similar problem with Windows XP SP2 and a LaCie Firewire "designed by FA Porsche" drive. I get the same problem when I create two 80-gig partitions and try to format one - or even when I create an 8 MB partition and try to format that.
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