Lappy reformat problem

Smithers

hi all,

when reinstalling a ntfs o/s my format freezes about 75%,

i created a win 98 boot disk and booted into dos to fdish and reformat and it went fine,
but when i load the xp cd and it tries to format it in ntfs it freezes again,

anyone got any ideas on how to proceed, tried it on a win2k o's cd also and same problem

aidan_walsh

Are you using quick or full format?

Smithers

full, when i use quick it gives me missing file errors,

Smithers

downloaded some utilities from bootdisk.com but same problem

ambro25

Does fdisk sets up the target partition as FAT16/32 and the Win2K Install has issues with converting FAT into NTFS?

Long time since I used fdisk, but can you select NTFS for the partition instead? And doesn't the format cmd of your win98 bootdisk prepares the HDD as FAT32?

Remove any partitioning with fdisk (so you've got a 'single-space' HDD) and make sure that fdisk does not set the HDD as FAT, if at all possible.

With respect to the possibility of fragmenting/bad sectors, try re-wiping the whole HDD with killdisk (Google it, freeware/trial version provides enough functionality). Try Winworld.com for a win2K bootdisk, and run scandik on *full*.

All I can think of right now...

Smithers

yeah fdisks format and reload sets it to fat 32, when i boot from 2k or xp it lets me change the format or reformat using ntfs full, fulll format freezes, changing the format to ntfs gives mising file errors, but the oz cd are fine, i have reloaded other pcs with em

killdisk is currently running, i dont have a win 98/95 disk though

ambro25

Bu@@er, Winworld downloads are down again... Oh well:

What about trying a set of Windows 2000 And NT Setup Disks instead of win95/98?

Would/could that work? (must confess to not being very experienced with the auld NT kernel and installs of same myself )

Available here

Smithers

tried killdisk and a format as notmal afterwards, format went 100%!!

used the hitachi download utility, it found bad sectors and i have chosen a full format using the hitachi disk, i will repot back, thanks for the assistance but its looking better then it did an hour ago!

ambro25

Good to read - best of luck

...battling with making a minimal win95 OSR2 (with IE5) build here, for a CompactFlash-booted (and -run :eek: - no HDD or on-board ROM/NVRAM) *very* old tablet PC

Smithers

cheers mate,

the bad sectors didnt come up with the rescan after the incense format ,

formatting now with the win2k cd , fingers crossed