# can't format a Seagate HD, from an XBOX to a Gateway



## gerrisue (Nov 27, 2004)

It's a 10 gig HD, and the one in the Gateway went bad, so I thought, what the heck? 

Upon bootup, i get a message that windows 98 (trying to put XP on here, eventually) has detected that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. and then 3 possible reasons why, the 1st of which, is why, I'm sure, and that is that the drive needs to be partitioned. 

BUT when I try to FDISK, either requesting large disk support or not, I get the error : "Error reading fixed disk"

I'm sure the HD is installed properly. I tried Format C: for the hell of it, get error: Format not supported on drive C:

When i try fdisk /status, I get Disk:1 Mbytes: 9539 Free: 9539 Usage: %

I've tried 2 programs I found online called wipeout.exe, and clean.exe, neither helped.

I've tried just installing XP, and when I get to boot disk 6, I get an error that there are no drives formatted, basically. (DUH)

HELP! I'm going to pull my flipping hair out. 

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but you do say, they are the easiest to answer! )


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## angel (Dec 2, 1998)

Apparently, it's not that easy. 
Checkout WarC's link in Post #8 in this thread.


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## angel (Dec 2, 1998)

Also, a Google search brings up some newer information about utils available to unlock the drives.

Not that this helps, but I thought it was interesting:
Details of the Xbox Hard Drive Locking Mechanism


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## gerrisue (Nov 27, 2004)

Thanks so much angel, I appreciate your time with this. And it looks like TIME, will be the answer, with inclusions like: "The algorithm is well known" YEAH. hehe. Gonna have to go to school on this one, looks like. Thanks for the pointers, I'm all over it.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

I don't know how well this will work, but delpart has the reputation of being able to delete any partitions from a drive, no matter how stubborn. Just download it, add it to a boot floppy, and run it from the prompt after booting from the floppy.

http://www.juliatexas.com/delpart/delpart.exe


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