HD Woes

[inzomniac2]

Hi all,
Having some major problems trying to install a slave HD. Its a 41 GB IBMICL35L040AVER07-0.
BIOS sees it as slave,Dev Mngr sees it, but when it comes to formatting, it just don't wanna know, gets to about 2% then jumps back to 0%! Partition Manager 8 has been tried, and seemed to be able to create primary partition and format it no problem, but.............for some reason it doesnt see all of it. It only sees  32,000+Mb, where it should be up in the forties somewhere. That means that somewhere along the line, about 9 or so GB have been lost somewhere. I'm not a HD boffin, but surely thats a *censored* of a big section to be corrupt or damaged. Thought that might not be the case otherwise surely the disk would be unreadable? So on my numerous checks of it, I found a message somewhere that said that the disk contained a partial RAW filing system, as opposed to FAT32, NTFS etc. So at best so far I've had roughly 32 GB formatted to NTFS, and about 9GB formatted to GOD KNOWS WHAT! Lol.
Anyhow, the upshot of it all is that I cannot install an O/S (Win2000 Pro) on it, it gets as far in installation as copying the files needed for installation, then fails to boot-up after the first automatic re-start(DISK READ ERROR). Can anyone suggest how I can get rid of these RAW files so I can start afresh with a completely blank disk? Fdisk doesnt help at all cos the RAW files are unreadable by windows or DOS, therefore cannot be deleted or re-formatted. Maybe someone could suggest a disk(not data) recovery/repair program?
Sorry to sound long-winded(I know I am), but this doin my head right in! Grrr! Lol.
Thanks in advance.

[Detox]

What OS are you actually using to attempt the format?  If you want to install an OS you should be in DOS.  I suggest running your current slave drive as the primary master(disconnect the other) and use a floppy boot disk with CD rom support/drivers to startup the computer.  Get to the C:\prompt and run fdisk to remove all the partitions (for info on fdisk print http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q255/8/67.asp&NoWebContent=1) and start with a clean slate.  If I am not mistaken NTFS is for WIN XP not Win 2000, you should stick with FAT32.  See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q255/8/67.asp&NoWebContent=1#1.
Once completed run a full Format withind dos you might have to reboot after fdisk.  After all that then attempt to install your new OS.  Good Luck if you need more assistance make another post or e-mail me.

[inzomniac2]

Thanks Detox,
Have tried alll that you have suggested already, to no avail, but will keep on trying all the same.
Yes, NTFS is for Win2000Pro, it is afterall built on NT. But I will try it again on FAT32. The problem seems not to be that I am  unable to format it, DOS and windows had that problem, but Partition Magic resolved it. It is that 9 or so GB seem to be missing because they have been formatted with a RAW filing system. I cant remember exactly where I got that information, but I can DEFINITELY remember seeing it somewhere whilst tryin to install Win2000. I havent got a clue what RAW means, but it is making that section of the disk unreadable. This is why I asked if somebody could suggest any software to totally wipe the WHOLE(all 41 GB) disk clean, so then I could let Partition Magic do its stuff.
Thanks again,
Inzomniac2.

[Detox]

Not trying to argue with you but from what I can tell Partition Magic is made to run within windows http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/features.html.  I honestly dont trust it.
By using FDISK from dos it tells you stright up that once you remove any existing partitions all data on drive is lost.  Which should free your 9G.  After doing some searching on RAW Partitions online it seems to have some thing to do with LINUX and or UNIX and or Solaris and or Win NT server OS's.  
http://dco-proxima.dco.pima.edu/oracle/hot/hot03.htm

Maybe you can better understand this web page than me maybe it can help.http://www.peg.com/techpapers/monographs/rawdisks/rawdisks.html
As far as removing this RAW what ever I am at a loss...sorry

[merlin]

raw is read and write? >http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;197667

[inzomniac2]

Hey, thanks Merlin. Sounds like we're partially there, but the problem of windows not even seeing apprx 8 or 9 GB of the drive still exists. What I really would like to know is how the *censored* do I "wipe the slate clean"? In other words, I figure there must be a way of completely erasing everything off the hard disk, even a partition that neither Win2000 or DOS can see?  Is there any software you know of that can do this? Would appreciate any answers to this particular question. Got plenty of time to spend trying to resolve this problem, but alas, not alot of cash.
I also think Detox maybe right in his idea that it might have something to do with a LINUX or UNIX file system, so thanks to him too.
There has got to be some way round this, thats an awfully big section of the disk to be unreadable because of damage. I'm assuming this because 33GB or so can still be read, but I amstill not able to install WIN2000 on that partition, even when I use Partition Magic, which creates it as a Primary partition.

[merlin]

try this >http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2812