Hdd problems, need help !!!

[StealthyFish]

hello,

I've got a Seagate 160Gb SATA hard drive, and one day, it just refused to boot. I got an error before entering windows that a crucial windows system file was corrupt or missing. So I decided to format the drive. Quick formats work, full formats don't. I can copy large files (tested with 6gb of random info on another computer), but I can't install certain registrys when installing windows. It has problems copying. I don't get why this isn't working. Seagate's S.M.A.R.T. Utility says there's something wrong with the hard drive. Is there anything I can do? This is the second screwed up seagate drive I've gotten. I received this through Seagate's RMA service.

thanks.

[itznfb]

that's some bad luck there. i've had tons of seagate drives and always had great luck.

if i was you, i'd try something like this low level formatting tool. http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.04.12-HDD-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

BEFORE YOU TRY THIS: i'd get some more opinions as i'm not a HDD expert and this could do more harm than good. personally i'd try it anyway :) but you may not want to risk it. i don't think this is a true low level format, rather like a clean sweeper. but it might be worth a try.

[StealthyFish]

that would be zeroing a hard drive right? I've done it before, did it to the hard drive i had before this RMA one. 18 hrs for a 160gb, never again do i want to do that =(. I'll get some more opinions, that's probably my last choice if nothing else works.

[itznfb]

yea, essentially its just 0ing out the hdd. it does take a long time. i've only done it with Acronis Partition magic. it solved some issues i had with a WD hdd. i'm not sure if it's the same thing or not. i honestly don't know of any other type of maintenance you could do on a hard drive though.