formatting HD, why does it take so long ?

hi
i have to initialize and format an new hard drive of 40Gbyte.
i am unsing !HDform and it takes up to 1 day to complete

why ?

also, is there a better tool ?

Hi,
There is no need to Format the hard drive, just Initialize. This will enable it to be used and take a matter of moments. Just choose I instead of F when prompted.

hi
just Initialize takes 8 hours on 40Gbyte, i have already tried.

i have attached the HD as slave, using RiscOS v4.39 on a RiscPC/600 machine, StrongArm @ 200Mhz, 64Mbyte of ram.

RiscPC mobo -- pATA interface -- harddrive/master, 6Gbyte -- harddrive/slave, 40Gbyte (to be initialized)

!HDform:

Typing “I” → Initialize, it have taken 8 hours.
Typing “F” → Format, it have taken 1 day.

Are you soak-testing the drive? If you select ‘Initialise’ and then ‘None’ for the soak-test it should complete in a second or two! If it’s still taking that long, then I’d be suspicious of the drive’s compatibility with the interface.

!HDform stops with “error 23”

so i changed the pATA flat-cable from the mobo to the hard drives and now the machine is incredibly faster: initialize had completed without any “error 23” in 50 seconds X_______X

i got my RiscPC as second hand machine, probably the previous owner did something bad with the flat-cable. Too bad things.