Member Avatar for adecoy95

so my computer got a virus from an exe because of me doing something stupid, anyways, the first thing it did was give me a blue screen, then, whenever i restarted my computer after the windows loading screen appeared it would blue screen, so i decided to reformat, thats the easy way to get rid of it right?

apparently not, when it got to the point were it was "starting windows" after loading all the stuff from the cd, it would blue screen some kind of 0000007b error, i looked it up and was told i could use a program called DBAN to clean the hard drive completely, well i did that.

now it has let me get to select partition part on the cd, but when i selected the unpartitioned space and begin a quick reformat, it gives me an unknown error at 20%

i dont know what to do, this is really frustrating and i could use any help i can get!!!

if it helps, these are the tools i have to work with.

i have an external dvdrw drive, a portable hard drive, and a 256mb flash drive, no floppy drive but an internal dvd drive.

please help :(

  • 3 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 197 Views
  • 15 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by techsheaven

Dani AI

Generated

Quick expert note: given 's description of repeated crashes during setup and an interrupted format, the problem is more likely failing storage, a controller/firmware mismatch, or corrupted low-level structures than a simple file-level infection. was right to flag hardware; was right to point at partition/boot metadata. Start with non‑destructive diagnostics before any destructive wipes.

Run thorough memory and drive diagnostics first. Boot a small test tool (memtest86+ from USB) and let it run several passes overnight. Boot a Linux live USB (or a vendor diagnostics ISO) and check SMART and surface health:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda     # wait, then re-run -a to see results
sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda         # start with a read-only pass

Also swap the SATA cable and use a different port or power connector, and if possible test the drive on another machine or in a USB adapter. If SMART reports reallocated/pending sectors or badblocks finds many errors, image the disk immediately and replace it.

If hardware checks clean, repair the partition table and boot structures from the installer command prompt instead of relying on the GUI. From Windows Setup use diskpart:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
exit

Or from a live environment zero the first megabyte to remove a corrupted MBR/EFI header (destructive):

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=1

Caution: those commands erase data. Image the drive with ddrescue or similar before writing if any files must be recovered. If the drive passes tests but the installer still fails after trying a known-good drive/cable and resetting BIOS defaults (check SATA mode: IDE/AHCI/RAID), the fault may be on the motherboard or with the installer media; swapping the disk into another working machine will quickly isolate that.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for JemB

sound like you may have a hardware issue as well. first thing I'd do is try a diffrerent windows disk though
next remove the all ram and re seat it but try it with one stick at a time, see if you get the same error, if that makes no difference try a different hdd. same with the dvd drive.

Member Avatar for techsheaven

Are there any partitions defined? If so delete them at the point where it asks you where to install windows.

Also, you could do fdisk:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867

Good luck

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.