Second Hardrive MIA?

[Doctrinate]

Vista Ultimate o/s
AMD Phenom Q-Core 2.5g
Asus M3N-HT Deluxe Mobo
Nvidia GForce GTX 280
WD 300gb HD Primary Boot Sata
(Additional Seagate 500gb Sata)
(2x2gb) Dominator Corsair Ram
(Forget what my power supply is but its more then enough juice)

Ok, so I tried my hardest to work this situation out. I am "attemping" to install an additional internal HD. The installing part is not the issue. Vista gives me a error when trying to format it for use. "Windows was unable to complete format".

So I attempted to boot in safe mode and format that way. (Read on a differ forum that it might help) So now I am unable to find the HD in either BIOS nor in Disk Manager. Sometimes it will be there and sometimes it wont.

So that leads me to here. I have attempted to change the sata cable incase it was to lose....I tried changing the sata port inwhich it is plugged into the mobo. And sometimes it will just show up and I will attept to format it until it decides to go MIA. Both of my HD's are SATA and to my understanding the jumper settings on the 500g do not need to be set. Although I have tried, just incase.

Sorry this is long but I am tryin to give you a decent understanding and hardware I am workin with. When I am in the Disk Manager it shows up as RAW file system unlike the other which is NTFS. I don't know what that means if anything.

It it will help I can post some screens for some visual q's.

[Aikonik]

See this threads for more help : windows was unable to complete the disk check
Help! DVD format error: "Windows was unable to complete the format
Unable to format an external HD seagate
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-s...elp/943918.htm

[Dr. V]

Have you tried this link : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889718
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/836165
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931654

[Doctrinate]

I'll look over this info guys thanks for the response. bbl

[Doctrinate]

I installed the program SeaTools and ran some diagnostics on the HD. I am recieving a DST Test Fail and Generic Test Fail. Not sure what all that means or if theres anything I can do about it. But the drive went MIA again.

[The Edge]

You can try a zero fill full with seatools. If that does not fix it then replace the unit.

[Fabian]

i think you can fixed it by booting from xp cd and running a chkdsk which will found your problems and fixed them letting you boot again.