New Hard Drive - How Format and Partition?

May 14, 2009,

Hi MG-ers,

I have a bid in at eBay for a used hard drive. 320GBs Western Digital Caviar SE (EIDE). The item is advertised as being 'wiped clean' and 'in need of partitioning'.

Another deal on a Seagate 400GB is brand new in a sealed package, apparently from an overstocked lot. My e-mail reply from them says:
"Dear Customer,
This product is not plug and play. You will need to format the drive when you receive it. Thank you."

The Seagate 400GB is for $54.52, and can be viewed at eBay as item #170330113123
@http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170330113123&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

This Seagate deal looks appealing, and I am seriously considering it.....

The WD 320GB is item # 160333728800
@ http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&item=160333728800

I already have $25 bucks on it.....and I could bid now as high as $40. (Forty Bucks).

I'm not sure what MG's thinks about getting questions like this, or giving advice this way, but I was wondering if I could get a 'second opinion'. If I've broken some rule, please don't expel me, just delete the thread.

I will use it as a second 'slave' internal hard drive. Questions:
- Is it possible my eMachines W-3502 will not take or accept a 320 or 400 GB slave HD ? There is a 80GB slave in there now.....
- How do I partition and format a brand new 'sealed' HD ?
- How do I " & " a used, but wiped clean HD?

I'll bet many of you would vote against buying a used hard drive of that size (320GBs)....or a 400GB 'New' one from an odd-lot batch. I guess life is risky much of the time.....I'm kind of a risky guy, that's all.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again,

-scottportraits

 

Both deals look good all you have to do is format it

What he means by "not plug and plug" what he mean windows (if your running windows) will detect it but you will need to format it

to do this you go

start----right click on my computer--select manage---click disk management---then right click on the hard disk--and click--"New Partition" or somthing like that.

There you go

aly369

 

Simple really.
1 Insert into machine as slave
2 Go to Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk Manager.
3 Find your new drive, right click, select format.
When done, switch if desired or use as storage.

 

May 14, 2009 - 5:25pm est

You folks seem sure my eMachine W-3502, which uses XP Home and has (I think) a Western Digital 80GB 'Master' HD (with the OS and 'My Documents' & the 'Program' files on it).....will accept and recognize a new 320 or 400 GB slave internal HD.

Okay, the steps you lay out are simple - providing the machine recognizes the new HD .....maybe I should call eMachines support and ask if this model would have any problems 'finding' and 'recognizing' the new, bigger HD.?

Let's see, also, isn't there supposed to be a few GBs on any hard drive pre-assigned as a paging system, or NPROTECT or some such structure ? If a seller 'wipes clean' a hard drive, and you format it this way you've explained, will it normally assign out the few Gigs of space for these types of folders ?

Also, if I'm going to use the slave drive for 1) temporary incoming .dat and .bak files (file sharing), and 2) for uploading completed video file storage and sharing, should I partition the disk into two halves ?? Would that help the process, or not really effect it much to any advantage ?

So I've bid $40 bucks on the used 320 Western Digital, we'll see if I win. I e-mailed the seller and asked for a 21 day warranty, return and refund purchase price. If I don't win it in 3 hours, I will 'Buy Now' the brand new sealed 400 GB Seagate deal for $54.52. The Seagate seller has done over 3000 deals and has a 99.3% rating, so I assume there is some integrity in that. No deal on Newegg or BizRate, etc can match $54.52 for such a big hard drive, not even close....

So should I split or partition this big slave drive which will have info downloading into one part, and info being uploaded from the other....???

Thanks again, you are my team !!!

-scottportraits

 

I would personally have a smaller partition on so that any downloads can be saved to until scanned for security reasons.

 

You mean if I partition this second slave hard drive (it will be the Seagate 400GB one) and make all the incoming partial temps and the finished completed ones go into, say, a 50GB partition.......

.....that will 'insulate' the rest of my machine from any malware ? The OS, most important programs, and of course c:/WINDOWS, is all on master drive 'C'. If I partition a small part of slave drive 'D', like 40 or 50 GBs, will it 'contain' any damaging malware feeding in as temps or finished as completed??
I could sit on all new incoming stuff for a few days until all my anti-malware apps are updated with the most recent definitions, then scan the whole folder at once before opening or moving the files to other parts of the machine, especially 'C' drive. Sounds like a plan.....

I have gotten trojans before, and I never thought about a partition on the slave drive to 'contain' all incoming stuff for security reasons. Never occurred to me.

Of course, the best way to avoid trojans, is to not try to download brand-new movie releases or program serials, keygens, or cracks. There is nothing free. Except MG's good advice.

It was in November of last year that I got a bad trojan - malware. It was a really bad trojan, too. This is now my standard policy: Avoid new releases and especially cracks.

Let's see, the other issue was whether my eMachine W-3502 will recognize and be able to handle a 400 GB new slave hard drive. Since it recognizes the 80 GB one in there now, I see no reason why it would fail to 'find' a new 400 GB Seagate brand. The Master 'C' drive is a Western Digital.....do you foresee any product incompatibility-type problems ? Everything conforms to IDE standards.

Other than that, you've been very helpful, and I am expecting the new Seagate 400GB unit to arrive in a few days. Can you imagine, 400 GBs for $54.52 !! We have made a lot of progress in PCs these days.

Thanks again,

-scottportraits

 

windows xp or vista method..

or other software used partition magic..

 

Anything is 'possible', however the idea that your system won't accept this drive is quite unlikely.

There are several ways. Assuming you are not going to use any third party utilities you would:
1 -Physically install / connect the drive
2 -Verify Bios properly detects the new drive
3- Boot Windows
4 - Load disk management (right click my computer, click 'manage', click "disk management")
5 - The new drive will show up and be listed as "unallocated space". Right click on it, and select "New Partition"
6 - Follow the prompts.

Using the exact process. If by "wiped" you mean a low level wipe with a product like blancco or similar, you are basically getting a drive as new, with no partition structure or any data on the drive. The process would be the same as a brand new, never used drive.

Nothing wrong with saving a few bucks buying used hardware. I do it all the time. You might want to run a utility on it to check its SMART data to make sure its in good health, for piece of mind. Or just plug'er in and cross your fingers.

Good luck.

 

If you are unsure, you can always test on a Virtual Machine, or use something like Sandboxie.

 

Thursday May 21, 2009

Hello Again,

Well, the 400 GB Seagate finally arrived and I installed it into the old 'slave' drive-bay which had an 80GB Western Digital. The (C 'master' drive is where XP and Windows are located, and all the installed apps. Didn't touch it.

When I pulled out the old slave HD I saw the little tiny gadget that bridges the two prongs that are clearly marked on the old Western Digital as 'M', 'S', 'C' , and a blank. The old (Western Digital) one was set on 'slave', the second pair of prongs, in from the right; or the third across from the left. I placed this little gadget exactly where the old one was onto the new slave HD. Exactly the same.

Then I followed your advice, after installing and booting up, (the machine recognized it - 'New Hardware' found), and went to 'Disk Management' to partition and format. The (C 'master drive is called 'Disk 0', and the new 'slave' was recognized and called 'Disk 1'. That's fine, I guess.

So I first partition it into two parts, one 97 GB and the other 274 GB. Then I highlight the first partitioned part, named it (D, and did the slow 'Format' command. It took some time, and was only the 97 GB partition. Next, I highlighted the 274 GB part, also named it (D, and asked it to do a 'quick format' (since it is so huge).


Both chores done, and they say NTFS, Healthy, etc. Totally recognized from 'Disk Management' and from 'Device Manager'. But when I went to 'My Computer' and opened it, it DID NOT show any drive (D.
So I rebooted. Still, no drive (D found under 'My Computer'. Neither could I gain access to it through Windows Explorer - it just isn't showing up in those places......

So I went to the 'Device Manager' (sort of same location as 'Disk Management), opened it, and under 'Disk Drives' I find it listed right under the Western Digital (C drive -
as "ST3 400 832A" (Seagate 400 GB). Right clicking 'properties' showed me that the device was working and that the driver is the most updated.

I am now totally stuck. There is no way to access the drive !! Ouch !!
HELP !! It knows it's in there, but it won't show up under My Computer or from Windows Explorer. I never verified it with BIOS (don't know how). When I boot up I can get to BIOS from F10, I think.....it should be easy if I need to go there.

What should I do now ????

Thanks,

-scottportraits

 

I dont understand here - you have a 100gb partition and a 274gb partition, but yoiu mention you name them both "D:" ???.

As you may or may not know, you can't have two partitions assigned to the same drive letter.. so, if this isn't just a typo, you can't do that.

I cant imagine why a drive would show up in disk management as formatted and assigned a drive but not in Windows explorer, so, try this.

Go back into disk management, try and find the newly formatted drive, right-click on the partition and then click on "explore". When you do that, windows will open a new explorer window at the root of that drive.

 

Okay, I re-formatted the smaller partition as drive (X.....and will leave the huge hunk as drive (D SLAVE. The idea was to put all incomplete incoming temp files and newly completed files from P2P sharing into a partitioned area, and wait a few days until all virus and trojan definitions have caught up, then scan the newly completed files before opening or moving them onto drive (C which is my 'master' drive (with Windows, XP, and all installed apps on it).
Well, simply re-naming them didn't seem to make much difference. The machine is recognizing the new partitioned and formatted drive when I first installed and booted up, and also in 'Disk Management' & 'Device Manager', but still NOT under 'My Computer' or in Windows Explorer......

......when I right click on either (D or (X the 'open' and 'explore' options are faded to gray, that is, inactive. But When I try it on drive (C, my master, those options are black and can be opened.

Could it be that eMachine W-3502 needs BOTH internal HD's to be the same brand ?

I could re-boot and go into BIOS if you'd like, but I have no experience there, so it would be unfamiliar to me. I'll bet the new drive would be verified and recognized from there, tho. Could it be that eMachines W-3502 can't handle a 400 GB slave internal HD ???

I'm stumped. p.s. I don't know why but my colon button makes little smiling faces......

thanks for any help, I need it.

-scottportraits.

 

Try moving the jumper from slave to "c" for cable select.The master drive is always the one on the very end and the slave is in the middle.

 

1.45am est
May 22, 2009

Oh darn. I tried it (the jumpers) that way after another manual take-down (whew!) and it's still the same story......"Disk Management" and "Device Manager" detect and 'read' it (the two-partitioned 400GB HD), but I can't access it from 'My Computer' or Windows Explorer.

So I have an external USB connected HD casing (with an auxiliary 80 GB 'cable' drive, labeled 'L' inside it. Opened it up, took out the auxiliary. Also, opened up PC (for the last time) and put back my old 80 GB Western Digital - labeled drive (D). Upon re-boot the PC detected it (the old original 'slave') as "new found" hardware, and it is accessible from the filing system, just like before, just like it's supposed to. So it isn't anything in my machine.

Now, I check the 400 GB Seagate in the external case. Put the jumper on each end and then in the center (three tries!). Put it in there and powered it up. The PC recognized it each time after I switched it's own power on - I heard the ding-dong....and then saw the 'New Found' hardware icon pop from the tray. Well, just like before, both the 'Disk Manager' and 'Device Manager' pick it up, but the filing system is not 'getting' or listing it. Inaccessible, or 'access denied'. I definitely partitioned and formatted it right, though - even from the external peripheral the 'Disk Manager' had the right letter name and exact proportions.

Well, I'm beat. It could be one of two things, I figure. 1) is that two different brands don't work well in an eMachine, or 2) since it is a 400 GB piece of hardware it is very fragile and must have gotten a defect along the line. So much for buying something cheap on eBay, at least something huge and delicate like this. Return for refund, and a lot of shipping $$ costs and aggravation.

I won't get around to sending it back until Monday, so if you think of anything else, I will leave it in the external casing for the next few days.
Whatever more we try, it will have to be from the external case.

Thank you for your time and patience. These kinds of lessons take time, money, and sweat. And I'm not sure I 'get' the point of this lesson, though - except maybe increased self-reliance, and stick to smaller (250GB) hard drives if still using old IDE ATA type stuff. I'm only up to a certain level here......

Thanks again, friends

-scottportraits