Formatting HD problem with SP2

3 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/formatting-hd-problem-with-sp2.29748/

Every time I load SP2 my second hard drive becomes inaccessible and refuses to format (it is RAW). I found advice on this forum that led me to format (to NTFS) while Windows was in Safe Mode. I thought that I had cracked it when the format completed successfully, but when I booted up again the HD was RAW again. I went back to Safe Mode and the Windows sees that the HD is formatted NTFS. This is driving me nuts!
Has anyone come across this problem?

Des Lawton said:
Every time I load SP2 my second hard drive becomes inaccessible and refuses to format (it is RAW). I found advice on this forum that led me to format (to NTFS) while Windows was in Safe Mode. I thought that I had cracked it when the format completed successfully, but when I booted up again the HD was RAW again. I went back to Safe Mode and the Windows sees that the HD is formatted NTFS. This is driving me nuts!
Has anyone come across this problem?

Did u try formatting with some third party s/w like norton partition magic,magic partition 8,partition manager,F disk. etc.....

Also try via disk management tool and also try via booting from the cd...

I have tried with Norton Partition Magic and also with the XP setup disks and have managed to format each time. I have also run Chkdsk /f /r g: and the disk seems to be OK.
The problem is that if I open Windows XP (SP2) in Normal Mode the G: drive is shown as RAW in its Properties and I cannot access it or reformat it (in Normal Mode). It does format to NTFS in Safe Mode!
If I format in Safe Mode and reboot in Normal Mode - back to RAW. I reboot in Safe Mode and it shows up as NTFS.
I don't want to buy another hard-drive as I am sure that the problem is with the Windows XP (SP2) as the problem goes away if I uninstal SP2.