nobody helped.Please do this time.Samsung laptop problem

[unbiased]

My friend has a Samsung SenS670 laptop.It has 32 MB ram,300MHz celeron processor,CD/DVD Drive,removable floppy, and 4 GB harddisk.

It had win 95 originally loaded.It had some problems in that some times it didnot recognize CD in the CD?DVD drive while other times certain software could not be installed on it even when hard disk was more than half empty.

I and my friend decided to clean it up.As the manual is in korian language we went about in the standard way.When checking the partitions on the hard disk we found that there were two partitions.First partition had 96% of space (primary dos partition)and there was a non dos partition of about 140 MB.

We thought to reclaim the space occupied by the non dos partition and deleted it and the primary partition and repartitioned it into a single primary dos partition.While formatting , the disk integrity check stopped at 47% completion for a long time before advancing further.Then it said that the frmatting failed.We tried making two partitions of various sizes and changing the active partition also.The second partition could be formatted but not the first one(primary dos partition).At one time formatting actually started but stopped after 8% completion.We tried to load win98 on Ddrive(2nd partition), making it the active one but without success.

Now we are stuck.What may be the reasons?
Have we done something wrong by deleting the non DOS partition?PLEASE ADVISE SOMBODY.

Thanx in advance.

 

[BenSkywalker]

What utility are you using to repartition/format?

To remove the partitions did you try DOS FDISK? If that won't work, do you have a low level format utility you could use?

Have you run a thorough ScanDisk(takes several hours, but will tell you if you have bad clusters or not which could cause some issues)? If thorough ScanDisk won't complete under normal circumstances boot to safe mode and try it(or you could boot to DOS and try it there).

My first suggestion would be to run through a thorough ScanDisk to see how the drive's integrity is. It is possible the HD is on its way to its death and that is causing problems. Another possiblity, given the comments about software not installing, is that you are having issues with the IDE channels. What mode are the drives operating in(PIO/DMA)?

Nothing fancy on the advice end, laptops are all proprietary and a major PITA to troubleshoot.

 

[unbiased]

thanks Ben !for the response.

I used fdisk/format utility under dos(via win 98 boot disk) for partitioning and formatting.

no I didn't run scandisk in thorough mode.How is it done?

IDE mode it pio.

Why doesn't window load on the remaining partition which is formatted also(not primary)?

is there any software for low level fomatting and where can i get it?

Please answer these questions.I am feeling a little apprehensive because it was I who suggested reformatting.My friend is being very civil about it but I know that he expects me to solve the problem.

 

[unbiased]

I ran scandisk from boot disk but it gave the message that 'scandisk cannot check drive c'
Now what to do? I am clueless .Does it mean costly harddisk replacement.I don't know which HDD will be compatible with this model.

 

[kd7fhd]

just a thought... is the Boot Sector Protector enabled in the CMOS? if it is, you will not be able to modify the hard drive boot sector.

 

[imported_Phil]

Here's an idea- make a 140Mb partition in the blank drive.
Then make a partition that takes up the rest of the space.
Then delete the 140Mb partition- Windows should now install because there'll only be one drive letter, and this might stop the weirdness with making that first partition active.

Dopefiend

 

[imported_Phil]

Actually, just thought- you know you can make more than one primary partition, right? AFAIK you can have up to eight... I think...

Anyway. I would also try just making two primary partitions instead of one primary and one extended and see if that helps.

Let us know how it goes, I know how frustrating this kinda thing can be; I do it every day in my job

One last thing, try this:
Linky
It's a link to the manuals download section on the Samsung website, you should be able to find one for the SenS600-series in there. There's six pages, have a look on each, might be there, might not

Dopefiend

 

[unbiased]

I tried to make one partition then after making another extended partition I tried to delete the primary but FDISK says that primary partition can not be deleted as long as extended partition is present.

I also tried to make more than one primary partitions but FDISK doesn't allow that too.

Is there a low leve formatting utility which can be used via boot disk?

It may be stupid to ask but is it possible that a virus can suvive all this partitiong and formatting?

 

[TronX]

Originally posted by: unbiased
My friend has a Samsung SenS670 laptop.It has 32 MB ram,300MHz celeron processor,CD/DVD Drive,removable floppy, and 4 GB harddisk.

It had win 95 originally loaded.It had some problems in that some times it didnot recognize CD in the CD?DVD drive while other times certain software could not be installed on it even when hard disk was more than half empty.

I and my friend decided to clean it up.As the manual is in korian language we went about in the standard way.When checking the partitions on the hard disk we found that there were two partitions.First partition had 96% of space (primary dos partition)and there was a non dos partition of about 140 MB.

We thought to reclaim the space occupied by the non dos partition and deleted it and the primary partition and repartitioned it into a single primary dos partition.While formatting , the disk integrity check stopped at 47% completion for a long time before advancing further.Then it said that the frmatting failed.We tried making two partitions of various sizes and changing the active partition also.The second partition could be formatted but not the first one(primary dos partition).At one time formatting actually started but stopped after 8% completion.We tried to load win98 on Ddrive(2nd partition), making it the active one but without success.

Now we are stuck.What may be the reasons?
Have we done something wrong by deleting the non DOS partition?PLEASE ADVISE SOMBODY.

Thanx in advance.

Don't use Win95 on this laptop because it's not going to read the drivers for this.
Win98 might be able to work. But you are going to need the drivers for your board
because it will not have those drivers either. Your best bet is to buy a copy of
winxp pro. I say pro because I've run into problems with laptops and the home version
before once.

You should make a a floppy bootdisk and format it from this first and not the cd.
Then use your Win98 bootdisk to install.

 

[unbiased]

I booted the system via boot floppy and not the CD. the problem is that the disk is not getting formatted.and OS is unable to load

 

[KoolHonda]

Many manufacturers store stuff on a "hidden" partition, but on my Dell's I've always been able to delete it and reformat the drives as one partition. Maybe the drive's just worn out and all this formatting, etc. killed it? Have you run any diagnostics on the drive?

 

[unbiased]

I tried running scandisk but the message says that scandisc can not examine c drive. I once tried making two partitions. 1st partition(c) I made of 3% space and second(d) of the rest space.i was able to format the second partition as well as run scandisc on it but as soon as I started formatting the first partition ,it would not get formatted and the message said 'not ready' and 'cannot format c drive'.All the above I did via boot floppy(fdisk and format).

i think you have a point ,as no disk checking utility is able to run it seems a considerable portion of the hard disk has bad sectors.

 

[BennyD]

it sounds like the disk is knackered

you say you had disk problems before you formatted for the first time?

i think it is strange that it stopped on 47% and that you couldn't install when the drive was more than half empty (47%?), there might be a link between the two.

 

[unbiased]

I could not load windows because it need formatted primary disk.And the primary disk is not getting formatted.When I sized the primary disk as only 3% of space still the problem occured in the formatting of the first disc only.And windows seems to load by default onto primary partition which is not getting formatted.

I think I will have to search for the replacement of the HDD.I also tried Ranish Partition Manager.But it also stops after veryfying and at the point 'writing MBR' but no disk activity occurs and the system hangs.

 

[Jeff7]

Put ZAP on a boot floppy, and boot off of it. (The program was made by IBM.)
Is the problematic hard drive the only one in the system? If so, good. If not, make it the only one.
Boot off the disk with ZAP in it, and at the command prompt, type zap 0, and confirm Y when it asks. It should be done almost instantly then. Now try Fdisking and formatting the drive. I usually use format c: /u /c to unconditionally format, and check for bad sectors. I think the /c argument will only work with a Win9x boot disk though (available at Bootdisk.com) - otherwise, the /c means "enable compression." If it still stops during formatting, something's probably wrong with the drive.

 

[unbiased]

I zappad drive 0 and then fdisked with win98 boot floppy downloaded from the link.I made a single primary partition and made it active .This time also formating terminated with the message that'drive not ready,formatting terminated'

After that I made a small primary partition of 126MB and and extended partition over rest of the space.This time fdisk allowed setting the second partition as active. I could format the second drive but not the first one.I made the second drive bootable and tried loading windows but the installation would stop aftre first step.

I deleted the primary partition and still windows installation would stop after first step with the message that some command line error occured.

 

[unbiased]

I am perplexed because i was able to format 97% of the space on the hard disk but the first 3% was not formattable. What may be the reason?

Is there any trick to bypass that first 3% space of hard disc and intall win98. I have tried running scandisc on the first partition but it says that scandisk cannot examine drive C.

Any suggestions.I realize that by this time you guys must have become tired of this problem but this is my last ditch effort before going for the disk rplacement.