[kentend]

I have a Dell Dimension 8400. My Hard Drive went shot ( so they told me ). It was a 160GB Western Digital. I decided to get a Maxtor 300GB 7200rpm 16mb cache to replace it with costing right at $100 off of eBay. It wouldn't work...the computer wasn't seeing it. It then sat for a month. Dell would not give me support on it though they told me it would work just fine in my computer. I was livid. My wife would like her laptop back so I finally called them back to buy a Dell Drive. Bought it...a 250GB Western Digital and got it yesterday for $155.00. Dell gave me support on the phone for 2 hours earlier tonight and the computer still would not recognize this disk either.

As I was sitting on the telephone with Dell support I was browing the web looking for answers on my own. Found a website that said to change a setting and WALLAH!!! I read the solution to the Dell guy and he said, "ok let's try what they say then." Very funny. It worked. He didn't even know about it. So now I'm thinking....I bet the maxtor would have worked the whole time too! So I tell the Dell guy that I want to switch to the maxtor and he says, "cool." If it works I send the Dell back. He's going to keep on helping me.

So we see that the computer is now recognizing the Maxtor TOO! So it sat for a month for NOTHING...simply because Dell did not know how to help me with their tech support. They don't even know their own computers!!!!

Anyhow, after the computer finally recognizes the Maxtor 300GB drive I then get to the point where it says...."A new partition for Windows XP has been created on 286182 MB Disk 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]. This partition must now be formatted. From the list below, select a file system for the new partition. Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to select the file system you want, and then press ENTER. If you want to select a different partition for Windows XP, press ESC."

Then it gives me two options..
Format the partition using the NTFS file system ( Quick ).
Format the partition using the NTFS file system.

And so I choose QUICK because it's a new hard drive and my understanding is that you only need to use the normal NTFS system if you want it to remove bad sectors. So if it's a new drive it shouldn't have any bad sectors...( and I thinking right on this?? ). So I do the "quick" method.

And yet when I do it says this:

Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged. Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to your computer. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult your computer manual or SCSI adapter documentation for more information.

You must select a different partition for Windows XP.
To continue, press ENTER.

And when I do it shows me a new screen that asks me if I want to set up Windows XP on the selected item, press ENTER.
To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C.
To delete the selected partition press D.

And then it shows two partitions...one says:
C: Partition1 [New (Raw) ] 286173 MB ( 286173 MB free )
Unpartioned space 8 MB

And in circles it goes......so what is the problem....can anyone help me?

The Dell guy finally just said to do the regular NTFS thing instead of the QUICK one but that it would take 3 or so hours to do it. And they are supposed to call me back by 4 a.m. But I didn't do it. Instead I went looking for my own answers because in all honesty I don't think they really know what they're even doing.

So can someone PLEASE HELP ME!!! What do I do from here?

And please tell me in very easy terms because I'm quite computer illiterate. And I will be VERY grateful for any help.

thanks in advance,
Ken

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Personally, I always do a full format on new disks. It is something that needs to be tried.

What setting was changed to get the maxtor drive recognized? I would guess that you changed the jumper on the back, but I would like to be sure.

If the full format does not work, try the other Dell drive that you were sent. Goods purchased from eBay at huge discount are always suspect, and computer goods far more than most. There is a significant chance that you have a damaged drive.

[Kurenai]

Personally, I always do a full format on new disks. It is something that needs to be tried.

What setting was changed to get the maxtor drive recognized? I would guess that you changed the jumper on the back, but I would like to be sure.

If the full format does not work, try the other Dell drive that you were sent. Goods purchased from eBay at huge discount are always suspect, and computer goods far more than most. There is a significant chance that you have a damaged drive.

[kentend]

I did end up doing the full format. When I returned it was finished and said the same thing as before....."setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged."

You asked, "What setting was changed to get the maxtor drive recognized? I would guess that you changed the jumper on the back, but I would like to be sure."

I read online that we should boot up in f2 and under "drives" we should go to the SATA Operation configuration and change the setting to "combination" instead of "RAID Autodetect / AHCI. When we did that then the computer began recognizing the hard drives.

You wrote, "If the full format does not work, try the other Dell drive that you were sent."

Yes, I will do this in the morning when I wake up.

You wrote, "Goods purchased from eBay at huge discount are always suspect, and computer goods far more than most. There is a significant chance that you have a damaged drive."

Well this one was sealed and brand new when I received it. I do understand that someone could have made it look new but it certainly looked sealed from the manufacturer. Personally, I think this is just going to boil down to knowledge........and whoever has it. It's certainly not me and up to this point it's certainly not been Dell either.

I'll try the Dell Hard Drive tomorrow and see what happens. If that resolves it, though, how else could I test this maxtor drive to make sure it really isn't junk?

If anyone else has any suggestions I'd certainly appreciate it. Thanks for your reply too.

blessings,
Ken