Problems formatting HD

[Marvel]

Hi, I was initially trying to partition my 40g ide hard drive to have Windows and Linux installed on it.. I used fdisk to delete the partition and then created a primary partition of 75% to install windows back onto.

The problem is that when I try to install WME from the cd-rom, it automaticly trys to format C, it formats for a while but then comes up with an Error msg which says: "Setup cannot intstall Windows ME on your computer. An error was detected while formatting your primary hard disk partition. Press ENTER to exit setup."

And now if I try format C: in dos, it works for a while but then the "Not Ready, format terminated" message appears.

Please help me with this as I cant think what else to do but buy another hard disk.. I know I should have used partition magic but I thought I'd be clever.. that'll teach me!!!

[caperjack]

Go back to fdisk and delete partions and start over ,create one at 75% the the other at 100% of whats left ,esc and then set the first one active ,then reboot computer to the boot disk choosing boot with cdrom support and type Format c: ,then format the other partition .thne At the dos prompt type C:\ and when it changes to c: ,with the windows cd in the drive type - SETUP

[oalee]

Please help me with this as I cant think what else to do but buy another hard disk.. I know I should have used partition magic but I thought I'd be clever.. that'll teach me!!!

We learn from trying out new things, this is a good example... once u do this right, you've learned something new.. then that's the point when you got a bit more clever/smarter... :)

"never be afraid to learn new things..."

[dmm5702]

Help, I am having a similar problem. Marvel, I was wondering if you had solved your problem and could clue me in on the solution.

Ok, here's my situation. I bought a used Dell Latitude LS 400 laptop that had XP installed. I wanted to install the version of XP that I owned. This type of laptop has only external floppy/CD drives and only one can be connected at a time.

I changed the boot sequence and booted to CD. During the XP setup the I received an error that some file was corrupted or missing. So I started over and this occurred again. Next I tried to format and the formatting failed, it just stopped at 6% and said the drive wasn't ready.

At this time I disconnected the CD drive and switched to the floppy. I decided to try and install windows ME instead. So with the ME boot floppy I tried to format and this also failed. So I ran scandisk from DOS and it found 300 bad sectors during the surface scan. I reran scandisk and it found 5 more. Then I ran it one more time and it found none. I tried to format and this failed again. So next I tried FDISK. At this point I admit that I am just wildly trying things hoping that something works.

Using FDISK I deleted the primary partition, the only partition, and reinstalled it. I tried to format and it failed. Then I tried to rerun scandisk and I had more problems. This time I was told there was no more memory left and scandisk failed to finish.

It seems that there should be a way to 'wipe' the hard drive and start over. Do any of you have suggestions? I would appreciate it! I realize that I may have made some blunders with my actions but I don't really know any other way to learn than to try.

Thanks!

[DMR]

Hi dmm5702, welcome to TechTalk :)

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Thanks for understanding.