MAJOR HD help needed!!!

[vitesse@liberty.com (Vitesse)]

> I've tried formatting and partitioning a HD I bought just today
> that had been used on a Mac previously. However, it can't seem
> to format it properly - I've gotten I/O Error $027 I believe -
> and found that all available space on the disk is used even
> though there are no files in it. Can't erase the disk either,
> can't initialize it properly either. HELP!!!!!!

There may be two possibilities to consider here. First of all, have you
attempted to low-level format the drive? SCSI hard drives must be
formatted in two stages. The first stage is referred to as the low-level
format. The second stage is usually called "initializing" the drive.

The low-level format will erase all previous data stored on the drive.
This procedure actually prepares the drive to store data by laying down
the sectors and blocks.

Next you'll need to partition the drive and then "initialize" the drive.
The initialization procedure writes the volume bitmap and the root
directory.

The other possibility to consider is that of the drive returning an
incorrect ID to the controller. The drive is internally hard-wired as
Drive#2. This may confused the controller. I can't say that I'm an
expert on the Apple high-speed SCSI. Perhaps someone that is can shed
some light on this possibility.

Thanks,

Lowell Erbe
Vitesse, Inc.
Technical Support
<vitesse@liberty.com>