[Cell]

my dad recently acquired a virus or something on his computer that caused most of his data to become corrupt. i thought maybe a simple format and install would help solve the problem but i cant get the drive formatted. i took the old hard drive and hooked it into my computer and my computer wouldnt even boot for some reason. basically what i need to know is if there is a way i can format and reinstall. i tried to format it and at the last second it said the format could not be completed. anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Tumbleweed36]

What Operating system, what kind and size of hard drive, what format NTFS of Fat32? This info should help with the problem.

 

[Cell]

sorry! its a 120gb ibm deskstar formatted to ntfs. i am trying to load in windows xp which is what it previously had

 

[steve65]

1st off I don't know of any viruses out there that will cause your files to become corrupt. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but it is very rare. If the files are truly corrupt I would run some diagnostics on the drive itself as it may be the source of the problem.

2nd be careful about installing a drive in your PC that you suspect is infected with a virus as if it is a boot sector virus - you could infect your pc.

Now if the drive is good, and you want to format and reinstall windows you will need to boot to the installation CDROM. Go into the BIOS setup and find the setting that controls the boot order. (Usually in the Boot or Advanced menu) change the order to CDROM 1st. Insert the install disk and save and exit the BIOS. When prompted, hit a key to boot from the CDROM. After hitting F8 to accept the license agreement, you will be given the choice to repair and current install or perform a new install. Choose new and when prompted on where to install delete and then recreate the primary partition. XP will automatically reformat the partition before installing.

Ok, this next part I'm a little sketchy on as I've never had to use it. So if someone knows any different feel free to correct me.
If XP does not find the drive, it may be that your master boot record is infected or corrupted. In that case abort the installation and reboot to the install disk, but this time choose r to use the system recovery console. at the command prompt type fdisk /mbr which should restore the master boot record.

Steve

 

[Cell]

i tried booting from the cd and installing that way and it just froze. it took forever to load all the files and what not and then it just froze.

 

[Tumbleweed36]

When you tried to boot up and install with your CD, did you choose NEW installion? You need to select that to partition and format. Don't try to reinstall at this point, you need a clean partition and format. That option should be available if you were able to partially load the system as you described.

 

[mobo]

I would download the tool aplicable for your brand of hard drive http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/be_hdd2.html and run a diagnostic test on the drive first..If it has been havng probems copying files to it then there may be a problem on the drive itself..

You could start from scratch and do a low level format which would take out the partition and write zeroes to the drive thus restoring it to factory condition unless the drive itself is failing.

 

[Cell]

i was working on this again last night and i found out what he was talking about was wrong with it. it came up with a missing file upon startup. it was missing system32/hal.dll. it said to replace but how would you go about doing that?

 

[steve65]

HAL.DLL is the communication layer between the programs on your PC and the hardware devices. With Windows NT, 2000, and XP, programs are not allowed to send commands directly to hardware devices as they could with DOS, Win 3.1, Win 95 and 98. It helps to increase system stability by having windows act as the gatekeeper and preventing rouge programs from commandeering the hardware.

The file could be missing, but it is also possible that Windows just doesn't know where it is. Here is a link to a site that walks you through how to check (and correct) your boot.ini file. Hopefully, that is all the problem is.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

Steve