This has happened to me once before in a drive that was labled larger than it actually was. I forgot what I used to format it, but it was some form of Linux. I still forget the solution, but my suggestion is if it's new enough, try GParted, or if you can stick the drive in a new machine. You can re-write the partition tables from scratch, and unless it's really boned, it should fix it.

Ampera wrote:

This has happened to me once before in a drive that was labled larger than it actually was. I forgot what I used to format it, but it was some form of Linux. I still forget the solution, but my suggestion is if it's new enough, try GParted, or if you can stick the drive in a new machine. You can re-write the partition tables from scratch, and unless it's really boned, it should fix it.

Is it likely too far gone if even the bios can't tell what size it is?

Depends on the BIOS. It's possible it's not the fault of DOS, more the fact that the drive died right as you were formatting it in DOS.

Either way, if it can't be fixed with GParted, it likely can't be fixed. Try it or not.

HDDLLF can maybe work, if not, then maybe GParted?
Happened to me once, but in my case head got damaged and I got only 2/3 of the drive (it used 3 heads)

What OS are you plugging it into the dock with?

You can always use DISKPART from an elevated command prompt. If you run a CLEAN command on the drive and then a CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY it should hopefully come back to life.

Commands from elevated command prompt:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK (whatever disk is the correct number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

It should then be found in disk management and you should be able to create a partition there.

If that doesn't bring it back to life then it is probably dead.

Another thing to note is that I have had issues with certain docks and certain drives where they don't play nice together. If that is the case, you may need to use a different dock or hook it directly up to a controller.

It had a 3gb partition on that, deleted it and made a new one for the full size of the disk (it was reporting correct size). Both of these operations took a very long time and gparted kept reporting errors on the drive just starting up, before the gui. Same thing is happening when attempting to plug it in.

I would still try a clean operation on it.

Sounds like it may be dying, but it could be that the partition table is just whacked.

Edit: Just deleting the partition does not do as much as running a clean operation with diskpart.

If you get hold of the makers utilities, that may offer wipe / test - it could be dying though - ah, if diskpart clean works, that does a zero fill... never knew that was there!

cyclone3d wrote:

What OS are you plugging it into the dock with? […]
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What OS are you plugging it into the dock with?

You can always use DISKPART from an elevated command prompt. If you run a CLEAN command on the drive and then a CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY it should hopefully come back to life.

Commands from elevated command prompt:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK (whatever disk is the correct number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

It should then be found in disk management and you should be able to create a partition there.

If that doesn't bring it back to life then it is probably dead.

Another thing to note is that I have had issues with certain docks and certain drives where they don't play nice together. If that is the case, you may need to use a different dock or hook it directly up to a controller.

Diskpart also locks up in the same manner as other utilities trying to access it.

Use the Gparted live cd image to boot debian and run gparted, and fix the issue. Linux cures all things.

And if that does not work, try booting the DBAN live CD and doing a full low level nuke on the drive, that will wipe and overwrite everything on it including MBR, FAT, EVERYTHING.