Topic: how long should a 200gig hd take to format??

[Gordon]

gets to 100 % and then it sits there and as best as i can tell still formating but it's taking fucking forever.....

[Nick's Picks]

depends..
it will take a little while...just be patient.

[smokydays]

It should be done by the time you could count to 200 billion!   

[BayTaynt3d]

Depends on the kind of format you do. You can do a "quick format" which simply changes the image's table of contents to read that the whole drive is empty, but leaves all the data essentially in the same place it was until it writes over it. That type of format literally takes a few seconds, then done! Or you can do a complete format, in which case the entire contents of the disk will be reformated to be 0's, and that can take a hell of a long time depending on the size and speed of the drive. But what you describe is a bit weird, you get to 99%, and then stall there for a long time. Sounds like something might be wrong, but I'd give it some time to recover. Can you hear the drive working or is it silent?

[Gordon]

got it done.  I got an internal and got a case with usb2 and firewire.  it didn't want to work with firewire.  it would get to 100% and freeze.  did this on both my machines.  did it with the usb 2 and it's all good.  now that it's formated the firewire works fine on both machines.  whoever told be to get an internal and case instead of extrenal thank you!  saved a nice amount of money and it was easy as hell to install.

[momule]

whoever told be to get an internal and case instead of extrenal thank you!  saved a nice amount of money and it was easy as hell to install.

I have always thought WTF on buying an external drive as you only get a 1 year warr.  But you can buy a internal drive and external case and put it together and get a 3-5 year warr and prolly save $50-$75

[Gordon]

yep.  the seatgates have a 5 year warranty.