HD not formating..

[ApolloIV]

I just built a friend of mine a pc and i'm going to put xp pro on it. Well after putting in xp disk it goes through the agreements and up to the partitioning page. I then select to install and format the HD with no additional Partitions but after it jumps to the Formating page it is suck at 0% and wont move. I also just realized that its suppose to be a 250GB HD but its only showing 127.99. Its a WD Sata HD, any idea why this could be?


Edited:
In the bios it shows it as 250gb and also on channel 2? I have a dvd drive also installed, but when i hooked it up it shows sata 1 is the HD and Sata 2 is the dvd drive. Any thoughts?

 

[ApolloIV]

Well i just popped in one of my 40gb IDE HD's and i can format it fine. In the past i've never had troubles with Sata drives but it seems like thats the problem here. Ideas? He suppose to pick it up tomorrow but if i cant even get the OS installed i dont see that happening.

 

[atomic tofu]

that's a pre-svc pack xp install...you would either need to slipstream the update into the install for it to see the full capacity or do so afterwards...sometimes with trouble

here and elsewhere, do a search for 127gb limit

 

[ApolloIV]

Would that be the cause of not being able to format at all?

 

[atomic tofu]

not being able to format? the extra space beyond the 127 barrier....you can install...update, and then after your computer could see and format. I think it then treats it as an extra drive/partition. You would then need a 3rd party app to merge them if you wanted a single drive.

 

[ApolloIV]

I cant format it at all, thats the problem. I get the the page where is says formating and it just stays at 0%. I've also tried doing a quick format which will get me to around 20% but then will proceed to give me errors. I think I'm just go and return it since it could just be faulty.

 

[LA1]

is this a burnt copy of xp
or is it retail or oem ?

check your bios settings make sure that all is correct.
you might want to go to WD or who ever makes your HDs web site, they have free tools to format and whatever. try formatting with the tools, then try the install

 

[ApolloIV]

It is a copy of xp but i've used it before with no problems. I'm checking WD's site right now to see what i can do and see if it works. Thanks for the help, i'll post again after i try the tools.

 

[ApolloIV]

well i got it to recognize the full 250GB but i still cant format it. I tryed the quick format and it formated but it wouldnt install windows, the error said it couldnt find a file... I have used this disk before and i'm sure its just a simple solution but i havent found it yet