Hard Drive can't be deep formatted - Chuck it?

maximumzero

I've got an old Maxtor 300GB HDD pulled from a enclosure that the boss had in storage forever. Probably at least 5 years old. Windows will recognize it and I can write files to it, but a full format fails. (Though a quick one runs fine.)

Also spinrite, software that supposedly diagnoses HDD problems, halts at 2%, saying it's got over 60 hours or processing left. I left it on overnight and it didn't make any progress other than making the enclosure and HDD within extremely hot.

So even though the drive can be written to multiple programs have issues with it. Pretty much not worth keeping right?

MushroomStick

At this point, I would open it up and take out the magnets. Then I would probably hurt myself somehow.

maximumzero

Well sure, that's what you would do, but should I do?

Macro9

Did you use Windows built in formating stuff? Try to use something else like the HP format tool.

That never seems to give me any problems. Test the HDD again if that works to see if it's worth keeping.

MushroomStick

maximumzero wrote: »

Well sure, that's what you would do, but should I do?

What I meant by that, is that a relatively tiny, 5 year old hard drive probably isn't worth the effort/time.

maximumzero

MushroomStick wrote: »

maximumzero wrote: »

Well sure, that's what you would do, but should I do?

What I meant by that, is that a relatively tiny, 5 year old hard drive probably isn't worth the effort/time.

300GB is tiny these days?

Macro9 wrote: »

Did you use Windows built in formating stuff? Try to use something else like the HP format tool.

That never seems to give me any problems. Test the HDD again if that works to see if it's worth keeping.

I tried spinrite, which is supposed to be good stuff, but after 24 hours of scanning all it did was get to 2%

Rear Admiral Choco

If it doesn't have anything important on it, I'd chuck it, or perhaps set it aside for home use but only for files that I'm not too worried about keeping.

Griswold

Spinpoint F3 1TB for 55 bucks

so yeah, chuck it

Bowen

You didn't try to format it as FAT32 did you? There are some pretty nasty limitations to FAT32, especially on certain versions of windows. You might also try to repartition it first.

I don't think the drive is bad necessarily, especially if it's not used so much, that seems unlikely to me anyways.

MushroomStick

maximumzero wrote: »

MushroomStick wrote: »

maximumzero wrote: »

Well sure, that's what you would do, but should I do?

What I meant by that, is that a relatively tiny, 5 year old hard drive probably isn't worth the effort/time.

300GB is tiny these days?

Yeah, unless its solid state, I guess. I think its been something like 3 years since I've bought a drive under a terrabyte. Unless its a fast HD for the OS, I probably wouldn't put anything less than 2TB in as a storage drive as that seems to be about the sweet spot for price per GB.