HD Format....stumped

[speedyone]

Quick hrdwr rundown:
Winbook XLi PII300
128 RAM
4.3G Hiatachi HD
Phoenix Notebios 4.0

Quick problem rundown:
Ran Phoenix Phdisk for Shutdown partition (no problem)
Ran fdisk (primary DOS partition) (no problem)
Ran Format C: (no problem)
Boot WIN98 Startup Disk > go to CD-ROM > run XP Pro install (all fine)
XP loads (good grief that took a long time!) and runs fine
Did a > Start > Shutdown > Standby.......this is were things went wrong.
System tried to "wake up" and I get "ntfs.sys file corrupt or damaged"
Tried all sorts of things.........screw it! Re-format and start over.
Blew it all away to start from scratch.
Now the HD will not Format??? and Fdisk only creates a Primary DOS 24Mbyte partition??? Tried Fdisk /mbr with no success. Plus, the Phoenix partition utility won't work right.
Hiatachi doesn't have a low-level format utility (and they do not recommend it).
Anyone now where I can get a "zero-fill" utility to completley reset the HD?

Sorry for the long post, but I'm stuck Any help would be appreciated!!

James

 

[DaiShan]

why don't you just run through the partitioning process in xp install?

 

[speedyone]

<< why don't you just run through the partitioning process in xp install? >>



I tried the boot from CD install, but the system just hangs. It says "checking your hardware" (or something to the effect) and just goes to black screen. I've let it sit for an hour like that. Nadda!

 

[Heisenberg]

Try making boot floppies and using those. You'll have to download the program to do it from Micro$oft's website since they didn't include it on the CD.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

IBM's website had a utility called wipe.exe i think, that will write zero's to a hard drive, i think all the major brands have one...

 

[Bglad]

Boot from a win98 floppy or any dos boot floppy that will enable your cd-rom. Run the makedisk on your XP disk to make startup floppies.

 

[Raiden256]

You did reboot between the FDSIK and the FORMAT, right?

Things can get weird if you don't....

 

[GiGoLo]

here's the debug script i always use to wipe out my drives. Just remember, doing this debug script will ERASE EVERYTHING!... all partitions, all data, everything. you will need to repartition and reformat when this is done, so use this as a last resort.

boot to a 98 floppy and get to the a:\> prompt. make sure debug.com (or is it debug.exe??) is on the disk.
the normal font is what the screen shows up, the bold letters are what you type:

a:\> debug

-F 200 L1000 0

-A CS:100

xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301

xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200

xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1

xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 (use 80 if its Hdd-0, use 81 if its hdd-1)

xxxx:010C INT 13

xxxx:010E INT 20

xxxx:0110 (leave this blank and hit enter)

-G

program terminated normally - now reset the comp, repartition/reformat the drives and try the install again. lmk if you have any questions using it

 

[Raiden256]

Wow.... I thought I was a geek!