Can't format laptop?

[zmzhang]

A friend of mine wanted me to help him upgrade his laptop from win 95 to win98. He has the version of win 98 which requries a clean install. I tried to reformat his hd, but everytime it goes to around 85% and gives me error and displays. Trying to recover allocation unit 28,037. How would i fix this? Thanks

 

[copyfixer]

Go to IBM.com and get the programs wipe and zap. This will write the hard drive to zeroes and you can fdisk and try to format again. Hopefully this will do the trick for you. Here is a link.
IBM downloads

They also have a program for drive integrity you might try.

 

[zmzhang]

Hm.. I thought the Ibm drive integrity test was only for ibm harddrives. btw, the laptop is a NEC Versa 2655cd.

 

[starwarsdad]

What brand of Hd does the lappy have? There are tools from almost every vendor that do the same things.

Not sure but if memory serves, Zap and Wipe can be used on any manufacturer's HD.

 

[zmzhang]

I'm not sure about the brand of the hd, I'll try out wipe and report back how it goes.

 

[Jeff7]

Trying to recover allocation unit - that generally means a bad sector, at least in my experience.

 

[copyfixer]

Zap and wipe can be used on any hd. My thoughts are to write the drive to zeroes (store fresh like) Then the fdisk and format will mark the bad sector as unusable. I would agree that you have a possible bad sector. Many new hard drives have an occassional bad sector and the ordinary non AT people never know. As long as windoze works all is fine right?😉

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Unless the laptop isn't worth the expense, I'd treat it to a new hard disk. I've never seen that error unless I had a bad disk drive, and if some sectors have gone bad, it's not long before a lot more go bad!

 

[zmzhang]

It is a Toshiba 1.2 gig hd. I tired to use wipe and more then half way, it gave me an error code of 80h which is time-out. All i need to do is get the laptop working. Could i possibly bypass the bad sectors?

 

[zmzhang]

bump

 

[copyfixer]

Try to fdisk and format now. What the hey, ain't gonna hurt at this point.

 

[joran00]

if your are still having problems try using a debug script that always works for me... You need the debug command on a boot floppy..
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
xxxx:010C INT 13
xxxx:010E INT 20
xxxx:0110 (Leave this line blank and press the <Enter> key)
-G

The message, Program terminated normally, appears.

Reboot PC and fdisk and format..

 

[networkman]

Done a little digging and browsing..

NEC says that the harddrives in the Versa 2655CDT models were either Toshiba or IBM drives, 2.5" 12.7mm IDE. That being the case, you could go on over to a place like PiranhaTech and pick up a replacement 1.3 Gig drive for $23.00 (90 day warranty).

There are of course other places to on the Web, but as gunrunnerjohn points out, you have to determine if the notebook is worth it; if it were my unit, I wouldn't invest much money in it, but if I were having this same problem, I'd spend the $23.00 and save myself some grief in trying to work around bad sectors. 😉

Heck, you could probably turn around and put the old drive on eBay and make a few bucks back on it, even with the few bad spots.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: zmzhang
It is a Toshiba 1.2 gig hd. I tired to use wipe and more then half way, it gave me an error code of 80h which is time-out. All i need to do is get the laptop working. Could i possibly bypass the bad sectors?

Yes, definitely a bad sector.
When it displays the "Trying to recover allocation unit" during format, it should continue past that. That'll just mark that sector bad, and the system won't use it. However, a bad sector can be a sign that the hard drive is nearing the end of its usable life.