Unable to format or initialize HDD

Question

I have an Dell Latitude E6410 laptop that belongs to a client. I want to install Windows 7 on it, but when I try to create a new partition or format the drive from the Windows Setup, i get an error (Field to create a new partition on the selected unused space. [Error: 0x8007045d]).

I tried connecting the drive through USB to another computer. I opened the Disk Management tool and the disk appeared as Not Initialized. I tried initializing the disk, but I got another error message (Data error (cyclic redundancy check)).

I even tried opening the disk from the diskpart tool from within the Command Prompt, but the disk wasn't listed there. The tool couldn't detect the disk.

Any ideas? anything will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Try out the Western Digital Data Lifeguard tool or the Seagate SeaTools, free depending on the manufacturer of the drives. These will do hardware-level testing on the drive, and report if the drive is even usable. They will also run over a USB, so you can download and run on the other computer you have.

Windows won't install to a disk it knows to be bad, as they can't guarantee the system would run properly then. If you're able to load the Windows Install and the Command Prompt (with Shift+F10), then you can attempt to run a chkdsk on it, but that requires a drive letter to at least have been made first.

Answer 2

0x8007045d = ERROR_IO_DEVICE: "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."

Which is saying there was an I/O error while trying to access the drive.

This means it's either a malfunctioning drive, or a malfunctioning drive controller.

Since you tried the drive with another computer and experienced similar problems (CRC errors), then that tells me it's the drive and not the controller.

The drive is malfunctioning, try the manufacturers' repair utilities (if there are any for your drive's make/model), and if that doesn't report it fixed it, then replace the drive.