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by techmt

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My system got corrupted. I got a blue screen, rebooted but it did not fix it. It could not find the OS. I reformatted the Hard drive and was in a process of doing a clean installation of XP home edition when the pc shutted down. I tried running the installation again, but this time it does not find the Hard drive. When I go to the CEMOS setup it shows the hard drive in there. Is there any tools that I can download to reformat the hard drive and try to install again or to find if the HD is not functioning? By the way I was using "system commander 7.0" to reformat the HD.

7 replies

by freetechie

Try a different cable for you hd. Try a different jumper setting. Try unplugging all things you don't need for power.

I had a similar issue with one of my hd's. It crashed and I rebooted. It showed in the BIOS but when I tried to boot it just kept clicking...

Is it making noises? Can you feel it spin up when you start the pc up?

by techmt

Yes it does make noise, inclusive I can hear the spin. Since the system commander disk does not work right now I user the old fashion "Fdisk", formatted I can see the drive, but cannot formatted. When I try to format by entering format C:\, it says ivalid drive.

by lhatcher

If you are hearing noise other than that of it spinning up, then the crashes that you have had may be a sign of a failing drive, you may want to consider chunking the old one and get a new one.

by willcomp

Use hard disk manufacturer's utility to reset (low level format, zero fill) and test disk.

Most HDD manufacturer utilities and a number of other useful troubleshooting tools are on the Ultimate Boot CD available at:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Dalton

by hal 9000

When you use the FDISK command you'll have to first remove any existing Partitions reboot then setup whatever partitions you want reboot then you can format on the third go but you'll end up with FAT 32 Partitions. While not a major problem as you can convert the Partitions from the Run command line in Windows by typing in

convert C: /FS:NTFS

If you have more than 1 partition you'll have to change the drive letter to suit the partition you wish to convert.

But First I would be downloading the Test Utility from the HDD maker and testing the Drive if it doesn't pass the test and is still Under Guarantee make arraignments to return it at once and get it replaced. If it does pass the test then you should use a wiping Utility to clean the drive totally this will write 0's to every sector so that there will be nothing left on the HDD to corrupt a new install.

But it very much sounds like a HDD problem if it fell over during a clean install. the site that Dalton listed should also provide you with a wiping utility but make sure that you use the HDD makers test utility so if it is UG you can fill out the RMA form with the proper error message so it will be a fast and easy replacement.

Col

by korgmeister

in my opinion, you are likely being infected by some virus or worm. DO NOT use any shitty format program to do the formatting. Use win98 start-up disk do the the formatting, actually it is kinda different if you use any format program or win xp disk. because those higher level feature didnt really access the first sector of the hardisk, they just jump right into main disk and do the formatting, plus.. if you use win98 startup disk, you can personally activate the partition you have created and do some low level scan disk. by doing this, you can ensure your disk is CLEAN and work properly.

only then use your win xp cd again, re-format to NTFS and installation.

by techmt

Thank you all! Your help was very helpfull... The problem was with the hard drive. It took me sometime because I had to buy a new one, but after that everything run smooth. It is up/running now :).

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