Windows not installing

[ajbrun]

I bought a Seagate 80GB Hard Drive drive, but I've been using it for a few months when this problem arised. It started by it not booting up at all - it would just freeze at "detecting IDE drives" before it logs on. So I then decided to try to reinstall windows. This wouldn't work. After about a week of trying, I gave up and reformatted my hard drive, but when I try to re-install windows, this happens:

I boot from my Windows XP CD and attempt to partition the hard drive. First I did the regular format and it actually got to 97% before giving this error. Quick only gets to 20%.

Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged.

Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to your computer. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult your computer manual or SCSI adapter documentation for more information.

You must select a different partition for Windows XP.
To continue, press ENTER.

After clicking enter I see that it has created a new partition.
C: Partition 1 [New (Raw) ] 78521MB
Unpartitioned space 8MB

If I try to install on Partition 1 I get an error.

An error occurred while Setup was updating partition information on:

78529 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

Any ideas?

(Just so you know, most of this post has been copied from another forum, but I have the same problem. The people there said I needed to replace the drive, just wondering if you had any better ideas?)

[ajbrun]

Does anyone know if a faulty windows disk could be the cause of this?

[nichomach]

I had a similar issue; I recommend getting Seatools Desktop and running a full set of diags. Then use Seagate Discwizard to actually partition and install the drive.

[ajbrun]

OK, I ran some diagnostics on the seagate web site (the 2nd one). I got it to do all the tests avaliable. But it got stuck on the "quick test" at 10%. I gave up after a while thinking it wan't very quick.

I'll try the disc wizard now.

Is that how you fixed it when you had the problem? - You just ran disk wizard?

[ajbrun]

I ran that disk wizard on it. But, when it was formatting the drive, it got to 18%, and said something was wrong and I should run diagnostics on it. I'm going to do that again now.

[ajbrun]

So far (I'll update this as I go), these are the results of the diagnostics:

File Structure test - FAILED
Full Test - HDD PASSED, but NTFS part FAILED

[nichomach]

I have to say, I think your best bet is to repartition the disk. Use the utils to partition and reformat. If that doesn't work, RMA the hard disk.

[ajbrun]

It hasn't worked - it keeps saying there's an error witht the drive etc.

What I've done is order a new drive from ebuyer, when that come, I'll make sure it works, then send the other one back. When that gets fix or whatever, my brother said he'd buy it!

[nichomach]

Outstanding! I personally think your drive's gone titsup.com. Make sure you've noted down the steps you've taken, so that when you RMA the drive, you can tell the phone monkey that you've already done X or Y.

[ajbrun]

Yeah - I'll try to give a full account from when I got that "checking IDE drives" message to not installing windows. Still, I'll wait for my new HDD to come incase I think of something else. Also, if that doesn't work, then I know it's not the hard drive....

[menthel]

Somas like the hard drive is at fault. I had a similar thing with a Maxtor drive. Sent it back and the drive was at fault.

[lacto17]

hi
try to remove your RAM,
Dismatle your Processor ( if you know how to do otherwise dont do this )....
then arrange both processor and RAM
Switch on
It will format now.

Note : i tried this one last week it worked well
Regards
karrthik

[peterb]

Certainly sounds as if there is something up with the drive - but it would be worth running memtest to make sure it isn't a strange memory problem.

[nichomach]

And may I say...

[peterb]

Doh - I bit there.

[ajbrun]

I can't even remember making this thing.

I thought it had been lost in the vast array of tubes that make up the internet. Four years of RL is like 400 years of internet time .