Can't format or create partition......

I have a Maxtor 250gb, model number 7Y250P0. I can not create or format the Maxtor drive. When I start the computer with this drive as master, and put in my XP cd for installation, the usual blue screen shows up. Prior to installing, one is expected to choose a partition to install the OS on. Well, that list of partitions is all empty and I can't create a new partition either, I receive an error message instead. I tried with starting with the disk as slave as well. It takes about five minutes for the computer to start with this drive in. When looking through My Computer, the Maxtor drive is not there. Not in computer management either. Wath I think is that there is something wrong with the sectors, but I haven't found a decent sector repairer which works. Does anyone have any tips on good software or another reason for the problem? It's a shame to let a 250gb drive be wasted like this.

Anonymous Mar 04, 2007

I probably should have mentioned it, I have already used that software from Maxto. And FDISK wont work, because there are no partitions, the list is empty. And I can't create any either. Have already tried. I am though running a software which repairs bad sectors. It has been 2 days now and it's only searced for 1300 setors, the drive has about 4 million... Strange.
zaivalananda May 17, 2009

I set my Maxtor 250 Gb drive up on a friend's computer... and the idiot who sent it to me had it jumpered for 32 Gb limit, which I didn't notice... the drive formatted 32 Gb. I changed the jumper, and it formatted another 8 Gb as another partition. I brought the drive home and hooked it up to my external USB drive box... I can use the original two 32 and 8 Gb partitions... I tried to reformat it using MaxBlast... and now the drive reports as being 2 TB! and won't format. When I run Fdisk or anything else, the computer says it's working, and keeps going until it thinks it's done -- but there is no drive activity, and when it "finishes" it says "format failed". Small wonder, as it was trying to format it to 2 TB... Now what?

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119 Answers

You can try an FDISK form a windows boot disk, but you may need to read up a little on how to use it. or maxtor has a program available on their web sit called powermax that can try to find & repair possible problems. powermax may be the best & easiest way to go. good luck.

Posted on Feb 28, 2007

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