Formatting a 1TB HD

[mian]

Format did not complete successfully. (after 60 hours )

It's an simple enough problem, too many bad sectors = RMA. I was silly to hope for something besides a drive problem.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[pcostanza]

Though I really didn't need more HD space, I'm building this week and wanted fresh so I got the WD 1TB Black, fired up Easus Partition Manager which is free for home use (says Vista compatible but works fine for me in W7 RC) and did a quick format. Took all of about 90 seconds.
I immediately partitioned it and started copying files to it. Works fine so far.

I still think these are a bit better than Seagate but at the prices they're selling these, I worry how good they are. WD's have a 5 year warranty and I think Seagate went back to 3.

[mian]

I still think these are a bit better than Seagate but at the prices they're selling these, I worry how good they are. WD's have a 5 year warranty and I think Seagate went back to 3.

The newegg reviews are outstanding for the Black. And I tend to put a fair amount of trust in newegg reviewers. They saved me from the 7200.11 debacle and they've provided really outstanding details on a wide range of products that I wouldn't have otherwise known.

However, I've about decided to never order a hard drive from newegg again. My drive was very poorly packaged, though bubble wrap was around the drive, one side of it was unprotected by more than a few cm of plastic--no bubbles. The box it was in was huge and the extra filler paper in the box was put in haphazardly, with the bubble wrap in direct contact with the bottom of the box, instead of some paper buffer being on all sides.

Did that contribute to my drive being defective? I honestly don't know. But I was warned by various Newegg reviewers this, poor packaging, would be the case. Given how great my other PC components (virtually everything I have is from Newegg) have been packaged, I chose to ignore those warnings. Also, there was a nice sale at the time. Given that my RMA shipping has wiped out half my sale savings, I'm having some buyer's remorse.

[pcostanza]

It's funny you mention newegg packaging. Last week I started receiving all the supplies for my new build. Since almost all came from newegg, lots of stuff was packed in one box.
After each delivery, I got an email asking me to comment on their new packing material.
Dear Valued Newegg Customer,


We have started testing an environmentally responsible, renewable, reusable and recyclable paper packaging material from Ranpak Corp. called FILLPAK TT®.

As part of our commitment to our customers, we would like to offer you the opportunity to help us evaluate this new material by completing the questions and comments below.

Basically, it's paper but my drive and 2 dvd drives were wrapped in bubble pack with this newish paper above and below it. It seemed to be fine. But, newegg needs to remember that UPS and other shippers don't even read the boxes if they save FRAGILE. They're just paid to get them there.

Oops, sorry, we're moving off the format thread and onto another discussion.

[mian]

My replaced drive has arrived. I was a little weary when I saw tearing on the anti-static bag, but overall the packaging was more secure than last time. Once again the paper filler they use was only stuffed on top of the drive, not all around it. I don't really have a problem with the type of filler, just the way it's being used. The bubble wrap was all the way around the drive this time at least, leaving no portion of the drive unprotected.

Anyway, it's in and formatting (full format) at a rate of 1% every minute and 20 seconds, faster than I'd hoped. I estimate 2 hours till completion. Once that's done I'll run a full surface scan as well because I'm skittish.

[martint123]

Just installed a 1.5tb Samsung drive and with Acronis, cloned my nearly full 750gb drive to it in around four hours.