Win ME lost HD won't FDISK

[queenszd]

ok.... let me start at the beginning.... I developed a Registry problem...Tried using the Reocvery CD's....problem not fixed...talked to a guy at a computer repair place who told me that bout the best way to fix the problem would be to format and reinstall ME....I got a ME startup disk.. try to format the HD get message, a screen pops up, windows ME has detected that the Hard drive is not partitioned, need to run FDisk from the Ms-Dos prompt at the prompt I try to run Fdisk... get message NO Fixed Disks present :?: :eek: :evil: Go back to the Recovery disks as they are supposed to be able to format and then Restore....Get messages that the a, b, c, d, e and f.lst files cannot be found on the CD, ask's if i wish to continue anyway... If I say yes it then tells me that it can't find the CD-ROM :mad: am I missing something here :?: what is the exact command to run FDISK I've tried just typing Fdisk at the prompt and get the no fixed disk's present message If i type in fdisk C: and get message the parameter is not correct

HELP!!!! PLEASE I really need to get my computer started again, classes started yesterday and each class has a computerized study guide, not to mention the three research papers and presentation projects the first of which is due in little over a month. Please can someone help walk me through this step by step.... My Landlord asked His computer guy if He could fix the problem and they told him sure....150.00 bucks but NO guarantee it would work :!: :!: :!: $150!! I don't got that much.... as it is I can barely afford my rent let alone keep my son in clothes :( Please please please can someone help me figure out how to format this HD *oh by the way it's a Seagate HD, running in a HP Pavilion 6835 computer*

[alc6379]

Can you get into the BIOS on your system? I'd check to see if the BIOS is detecting the hard drive. I'm not very up on HP machines-- you'll have to refer to your documentation to determine how to enter the BIOS.

Also, what type of registry error do you have? A lot of them can be fixed by running scanreg /restore from a DOS bootdisk.

Give us a bit more detail, and we could probably help you wrangle down that error message, as opposed to just blowing everything away.

[queenszd]

I've been into the BIOS Settings, and yes it detects the A drive, CD-ROM drive and the HD Drive.... at least i think it does... the settings for them all are AUTO... when i was getting a Registry error.. it was just a generic blue screen, Window's Registry on start up... The Registry Checker has detected an Error in the Registry now attempting to correct the problem... it would then back up "Critical files" and say You have Restored a good registry, Window's is now restarting your computer..... And end up BACK at the Registry Checker Window.......... NOW all I get when I start up the computer is a black screen, white letters in upper left corner stating Operating System not found. *sighs*

[condorcanqui]

what is the windows version??

[condorcanqui]

ok i see now you have a windowns ME, by any chance do you have a startup disk?
tried to start with start up disk and then at the DOS run the fdisk command AND IF YOU HaVe DONE THAT ALREADY, type format c: and hit enter and see what happens

[queenszd]

by any chance do you have a startup disk? tried to start with start up disk and then at the DOS run the fdisk command AND IF YOU HaVe DONE THAT ALREADY, type format c: and hit enter and see what happens

YES, YES done that, did that, tried that..... :cry: when i enter the fdisk command I get the message no fixed disks present... when I input the Format C: Command I get the message NO FORMATABLE DISKS Installed, Disk(s) not fixed run the fdisk command from the prompt..... and of course when I do that I get the NO fixed disks found message.....round and round we go......I found instructions from a post here to instructions by the VillageIdiot on how to install, partition and format a HDRIVE, printed out and followed every step on all 27 pages... Still NO LUCK!... that's when I started "HOLLERING" for help......

[kc0arf]

Hello,

I can think of a couple things happening here.

1) Hard drive is dead. Might be seen as AUTO in the BIOS, but when the computer boots, you should see some white printing on there with the CD-ROM and other things... probably has the hard drive size still encoded.

2) Assuming that shows up, then try to boot from the CD-ROM drive. If that doesn't work, you might need to make boot floppies, and go from there.

I do not know if ME uses NTFS or FAT32 as a format standard.

It might be time to go after a new hard drive. If you have the case off, so you can see the components, turn the computer on and touch the hard drive. (Don't touch anything else in there, and take off all jewelry and keep metal away from the inside.) See if you can feel it spinning, or if you hear a clicking sound, or perhaps some grinding noise. If your hard drive is failing, it could be introducing errors to prevent the OS from booting, or give you OS not found.

Gut feeling is that the HD is dead. Without being there, I am not sure though.

Christian

[condorcanqui]

by any chance do you have a GATEWAY, you could probably tried a gwscan

[condorcanqui]

OR you can download the program from gateway.com
this would check you HDD from errors and delete all the info in your HDD adn after that you should be able to do a fdisk and format

[queenszd]

the computer is a Hewlet Packard 6835, about 3 years old. When you turn the Computer on you can feel it "whirring softly" and can hear a slight ticking sound... This is what really confuses me I can remove the HD and install it as a slave drive in a computer running Win 95...access all the information, even run some of the programs but when I set it back to Master and try to access it on the original computer I can't do anything with it.... I even took a Western Digital HD and tried to install that as the Master drive and the original HD as a slave drive... same problem NO Fdisk and will not run the Fdisk program :( *GRRRRRRRRR* getting very frustrated...