how long should it take to format a 1T drive???

I've been formatting a new 1T drive on my new win7x64 system as a BASIC drive NTFS format - with default allocation.  it's been formating for over 12 hours now and it's only up to 19% done!  is this normal???

The quick format is actually the only format. The full format includes a bit by bit test of the disk surface and will add bad sectors to the list the OS manages to avoid writing to bad sectors. Since the full format takes a long time and is automated, it is best to just do it while you sleep. You will sleep better knowing that your drive has bad sectors mapped before you use it to store data.

Yeah...a quick format is fine with a new drive. If you want to use an older drive for something new, the deep format is the best option. It does take time.

I also have a "disk eraser" that is one of those military level disk erasers..... and some of the higher levels of dis erasing can take a very long time since it checks and writes every single bit on the drive with ones, and zero's many times checks it and repeats it before moving to the next bit..... even the much lighter "giving the computer away" erase is pretty intense and time consuming.

I am confused. How many hard drives are you talking about and which one is the one you are installing Win7 on? And what application are you using to format the one that you are having trouble with? Which drive does the Win7 installation routine say you need to format? Do all the installed drives show up in the bios auto-detection?  Have you downloaded the disk manufacturer's diagnostic utility, burned a disk and booted to check the disks integrity without using Windows? 12 hours on a fast 1TB drive to get 16% surface reading is not normal.

Are we still talking about using drives that were set up as part of a dynamic disk?

I would also consider partitioning that huge drive if you're going to put an OS on it.  That way you can defrag the OS drive easily without having to wait while the storage area is checked (plus it makes it easier if you need to reformat and reload - you won't be touching your non-OS files).

slartabartfast


I am confused. How many hard drives are you talking about and which one is the one you are installing Win7 on? And what application are you using to format the one that you are having trouble with? Which drive does the Win7 installation routine say you need to format? Do all the installed drives show up in the bios auto-detection?  Have you downloaded the disk manufacturer's diagnostic utility, burned a disk and booted to check the disks integrity without using Windows? 12 hours on a fast 1TB drive to get 16% surface reading is not normal.

Are we still talking about using drives that were set up as part of a dynamic disk?

I am only having problems with ONE drive.  I am installing 2 new drives on the machine and I had disconnected all other winxp drives to do this.
I have one 400GB drive that I have installed win7x64 onto without issue
I have one 1TB drive that I am having problems with.
I am using the windows DISK MANAGEMENT utility for formatting the drive
I don't understand your question about win7 installation routine saying I need to format a drive?  I don't recall saying anything about an "installation routine" (I did mention that the 1TB drive stopped working during win7 updates)
Yes, both drives show up in the BIOS
No, I have not downloaded the disk manufacturer's diagnostic utility - I've been using win7 tools only.
originally both drives were set up as dynamic disks, but I had to convert them back to BASIC before win7 would even install on the 400G drive or format the 1TB.
 
I think I have found the problem.  I was using a PCIe/SATA for the 1TB drive.  If I don't use it then the 1TB drive works properly.  I am now troubleshooting with it - I've downloaded the latest drivers for it and hopefully that will solve this problem.

craigb


I would also consider partitioning that huge drive if you're going to put an OS on it.  That way you can defrag the OS drive easily without having to wait while the storage area is checked (plus it makes it easier if you need to reformat and reload - you won't be touching your non-OS files).

sorry I wasn't clear - I'm not putting the OS on the 1TB drive.  I've already put the OS a 400G drive.  this 1TB drive is to be the AUDIO DATA drive.

Beagle

I think it's actually the SATA controller instead - I have moved the 1TB drive to the motherboard's onboard controller and it works fine there.  I needed the extra PCIe/SATA because I have more devices than I have ports on the motherboard.

If possible, try moving the SATA controller to a different PCIe slot.

that's a good suggestion, Kev but I only have 1 PCIe1x slot on my motherboard.

 
If you have a free x4, x8, or x16 PCIe slot... you can move the controller there. 
Just occupies the front part of the slot...

thanks Jim - I think I'm going to have to return the controller card.  It recognizes the 1TB drive during POST and in BIOS, but it will no longer recognize it in windows.  I updated the drivers for that controller and that didn't help.  the 1TB HDD works fine if I use the motherboard SATA connectors, but not on the PCIe controller card.