I have a Maxtor 96147H6 Hard Drive that originally ran Windows XP. Some time ago, the OS began to crash, and if I tried to reboot inside of half an hour I got "OS Not Found." I couldn't fix it with my extremely limited knowledge at the time, so I canniballized the computer. Now I want to Write Zeros to the drive because I've found it's full of bad clusters. The problem is, the only computer I have right now has BIOS that doesn't support drives over 32 gigabytes. I can set the drive's jumpers to limit the space to 32 gigabytes and get my computer to recognize the drive, but can I still Write Zeros to the ENTIRE drive while it's like this? If so, is there anything unusual I need to do to make it work? Thanks for all assistance

Go to the Maxtor site and look for a file (sometimes called an overlay) that will overcome the Bios limitation. They probably have a write zeros program that you can use. It might not even need the overlay fix.

If you don't have the diagnostic floppy for your HDD, go to the manufacturer's website & download it "If you can read this, thank a teacher" "If you are reading it in English, thank a veteran."

Okay, I've made a disk for MaxBlast3 (Maxtor Diagnostic Software). I'll try it as soon as I can use the computer and get back to you.

It is worrying that you advise there are many bad clusters. This is generally a sign the hdd is failing and if so should be binned as it is not curable condition. Formatting the hdd with options /U /C set will test bad clusters and remove if they can be used. By all means try a low level format as you suggest, which you should be able to download from the hdd makers website. It will not do any harm and give a totally wiped hdd, but it cannot remove bad blocks that are truly bad. Good luck - Keep us posted.

The low level format took literally forever, but using the Dynamic Drive Overlay and the space-limit jumper I've got my drive running in windows at its real capacity now. As far as I can tell, it doesn't have any problems anymore, since it isn't having trouble running and a surface scan turned up no errors. Thanks for all the help

Dear Aero - thanks for getting back. Suggest you keep an eye on the hdd with scandisk to see if the bad blocks start re-appear. If so, at worst they could cause eventual loss of system. Good luck - Keep us posted.