Very strange problem, help needed.

[M C STORM]

Ok, this has me stumped ...

My mums Packard Bell P4 iExtreme PC was running very slowly on XP Home, it had been installed for about 2 years so I thougth it would be a good idea to format and start a fresh with XP Pro.

So I backed up any data over the network to my PC and booted into Windows setup from the XP cd, selected the drive to install windows on and chose to quick format NTFS ..... the progress bar jumped from 0% to 20% to 100% then hgave me the following error:

Setup was unable to format the drive, the drive may be damaged

Hmmm I thought .... so I tried again this time not a quick format but a full one, same error again

Next I thought it may be the IDE controller (although I dont see why as its been running this drive for 2 years) so I swapped the ide channels and its the same

Reset cmon = same
Set bios defaults = same
Flashed updated bios = same

By this point I'm fast running out of ideas ...... so I swapped the drive out into another PC and it formats fine

I even waited until the XP setup files were copied onto the drive, whipped it out and back into my mums machine thinking it would carry on with the installation but NO I get a BSOD

I'm totally stumped !!

[Grey M@a]

I am assuming the drive isn't on any form of raid controller? And it doesn't need any specific drivers for it to use the drives? My brothers old PB used to do this and you had to swap the ide cables from IDE0 to IDE1 and it worked fine. Try changing the cables around.

[Butuz]

I could be the IDE cable? Try the IDE cable out of your system in your mums system see if that helps.

It could also be the beginnings of a drive faliure. Running very slowly is not a good sign.

Butuz

[M C STORM]

Thanks for the replies

Grey M@a - I have swapped the cables around, makes no difference.

Butuz - when I say running very slowly I meant just that Windows has been on there for almost 3 years without a reinstall, it was windows running slowly not the hard disk itself, I usually reformat my machine twice a year or so just to keep it all nice and fast.

I will try another IDE cable, cant see it being that though, it worked fine until yesterday.

[turkster]

Hmm strange!
I have to say the slow computer=dodgy drive that Butuz mentioned happened to me before with a drive. It was not immediatly obvious that it was the drive eg it was slow to start up or run everything then it began to take ages to open things and then the next theing was it wouldnt boot .

Anyway did you try to format a Fat32 partition from dos using a Win98 boot floppy and then start the install from the XP Pro CD with the E:\I386\winnt trick or boot from CD. Its worth a try maybe.