Bad mbr

Troops:

I connected an external drive via the USB port to my computer
(OS =WINDOWS XP) The computer recognizes the external drive and I can move files in and out of that drive.

I am trying to reformat this external drive by using PartionMagic. The drive had been formatted in WINDOWS XP using the NTFS format.
When I look at the PROPERTIES of this external drive in Partition Magic the PARTITION INFORMATION given is
Partition Type BAD
Serial Number None

When I use PartitionMagic's format command to try and change the formatting type to FAT32 I get the following messages
Formating partition G
BADMBR primary volume 95393.8 Mb on Disk 2
Name label and type FAT32
Followed by
Error #4 Bad argument/parameter

What must I do to change the format on this disk to FAT32?
What is a "BAD" partition type? Do they mean it is bad?

David

 

Simply delete and then remake the partition.

 

John:
Thank you for your response. You were the only one.
How do I delete a partition?
I tried to make new partitions so that it would affect the MBR thereby maybe straightening out the situation. PatitionMagic will not let me make new partitions either before or after whatever is there now.It says "Cannot resize. There are no primary or logical partitions on this drive.

I know I formatted this disk. And yet it comes up this way. I am confused as to what is going on.

David

 

There are many ways to delete and remake partitions. One good way to delete is to use dos fdisk, but that may not work to remake the partition on large drives, but that shouldn't matter. I frequently use a windows 2K or XP install disk to remove and remake partitions. It may require that the drive be attached to an internal mobo cable; I haven't tried an external drive that way. You have to 'pull the plug' before it starts copying files.

What program did you use to format the drive in the first place?

 

John:
I used Windows XP using PartitionMagic to format the disk from FAT32 to NTFS.
Now I want to go back to FAT32. I want to back up an old WINDOWS98 system.
But more recent investigation says there is no partition on the disk. I tried to resize and was informed it cannot resize for there is no partition.

What I would like to do is treat this as though it had never been formatted.
It is a Western Digital WD Cavier WD1000 100Gb disk. How does one do the basic things to a disk...low level format?

David

 

Since XP sees the disk, try using the Disk Management console to either format it to FAT32 or delete the partition(s) and leave it raw in hopes that PM can work with it then.

 

Troops:
I'm gonna have to leave this for one day.I'll pick it up when I get back from this trip I'm taking. Stay tuned.
David

 

I would use the tools specifically for the drive, usually a WD comes with a bootable CD with these tools.
http://support.wdc.com/download/

 

From past experiences, I would not use Partition Magic for doing partitioning or formatting. It is best at resizing partitions.

As mentioned, I would try using the Windows disk management tools first. It may only allow for formatting as NTFS. If you right-click on the drive in My Computer it may allow formatting as FAT32. If you use the drive manufacturer's tools (Lifeguard?) it might ask to format for Win 2000/XP, or Win 98/ME, choose 98/ME to format as FAT32.

Matt

 

David ...

A couple of comments re PartitionMagic and WD Cavier WD1000 series 100Gb hard drives.

I've used PartitionMagic for years, but Symantec hasn't upgraded it from v8.0 since absorbing PowerQuest in December 2003. Last week I re-installed XP Pro on my hard drive, and the first program I installed was PartitionMagic. It installed OK but, when I tried to run it, Windows froze and the computer had to be shut down with the power switch. When I tried to boot from the PartitionMagic CD I got an error message having something to do with disk management.

Yesterday I downloaded and installed the Acronis Disk Director 10.0 trial version. It recognized all partitions on both drives, and allowed me to resize one of them, although the trial version wouldn't make the change permanent. Still, it was enough to convince me to order the program ... $49.99 from Acronis, but $21.99 (plus shipping) from NewEgg.com.

I've had six WD Cavier WD1000 series 100Gb hard drives over the past five years and all of them failed (two of the six were replacements under warranty). It may be that only the WD1000 series had problems, as I haven't heard of anything out of the ordinary with other WD drives.

Even so, when I went shopping for a new drive last fall to replace the last surviving WD1000, I didn't even consider WD drives, and opted instead for a 200GB Seagate drive. After installing the Seagate as my primary HD, I installed the WD as secondary and, would you believe, it failed within two weeks.

I don't know how long you've had your WD drive but, given my experience with the same drive(s), I'd suggest that you not rely on it for storing anything you can't afford to lose.