Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[rebell1952]

I recently purchased a Maxtor DiamondMax 16 80GB ATA Hard Drive that was said to be new, albeit it has a 4/2004 manufacture date. But when I installed it and attempted to install Windows I got an error message that the drive couldn't be accessed. Upon running a couple of different diagnostic programs, it seems pretty sure that there are zero good sectors. My question: Is that even possible? Is every sector bad or does that mean there are no more alternative sectors? If that is every sector is bad, how does that even happen and the drive get off of the assembly line?

[fzabkar]

Could we see the detailed output from your diagnostic software?

A drive that reports 0 LBAs has a hardware / firmware problem.

[rebell1952]

Sorry to take so long to reply. I don't currently have the output from the diagnostic utilities and the drive is not mounted (I thought it completely dead). I have an adapter to connect it via USB, but the IDE connector of that device is not working. I am waiting for a replacement to arrive within the next couple of days. As soon as it comes I will run the diagnostics and post the information.

"Partition Wizard" simply reports that there are 0 good sectors and refuses to allow any attempt to manipulate the drive (partition, format, etc.).

Thanks for your patients!