Maxtor has utilities you can run on that drive to let you know what is going on with it. I have never gotten those messages except on drives that had problems. Maxtor is good about replacing drives, especially if their utility says something is wrong with it. Rick Glazier From: "Harlen" <[log in to unmask]> > I have 2 identical, brand new Maxtor 30GB Hard Drives. Upon initial format, > I received a message that it was "recovering allocation unit". The format > took quite awhile, but finished. A subsequent format, (using the /q > switch), showed that at 2%, the format finished, but didn't actually format > the drive, (the data on drive was still present), so I had to do another > full format. It is also "recovering allocation unit", and taking a long > time. Is this an indication that the drive is faulty and I should get these > replaced, or is there a switch that I can set to lock out those units? Visit our website regularly for FAQs, articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more http://freepctech.com