Trying to reformat my hard drive, but locks up..help!

[kurtis]

Something wrong is happening to my hard drive. I might have accidently deleted the "logical drive" or something during the process?? I am using the Maxtor hard drive installation utility disk for remformatting and at the point when I click on yes to begin actual reformatting the thing locks up and does nothing. This is true also when I try to reisntall WIN 98 from scratch after typing in "setup" at the d: command prompt and after I install with "CD Rom" support when booting from startup disk - at the point when it has read from the CD ROM and it starts scanning my hard drive for errors, it instantly locks up where it can't read from it. If you need any other info from me to help solve this problem let me know. Thanks for your help!

 

[LED]

If your Overclocked don't...set the BIOS setting @ Safe and if you have a Virus Protector in the BIOS make sure it's off.

 

[PCMarine]

If you're using "new" ram then it could be faulty, as this can cause symptoms that you describe.

 

[kurtis]

I'm not overclocking, and I have disabled virus protection in the bios. Not sure however where to set it in safe mode. I have had the memory installed for a while before this problem occurred so its not the RAM. Here's a more detailed description of whats happening: I boot up with the start up disk and then select install with CD ROM Support. A RAM drive successfully loads, c:/ prompt appears, I type in e: to access WIN 98 cd and type in "setup". Then the following occurs: "Setup is now going to perform a routine check on your system", then "Sanning system registry..." appears right away and then this on the next line - "Windows setup requires 7340032". It seems like the boot sector of the hard drive is missing or something???

When I do the initial boot up, bios does detect the hard drive so it is getting power and all.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[LED]

In CMOS you should have a Load-Fail-Safe Defaults and you can try looking to make sure your CD is not scratch ... also you might try reformatting the HD

 

[kurtis]

I have tried reformatting but it locks up as well. It won't let me another words!

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: kurtis
I have tried reformatting but it locks up as well. It won't let me another words!

Calm...calm...calm...think...about your statement..

Then the following occurs: "Setup is now going to perform a routine check on your system", then "Sanning system registry..." appears right away and then this on the next line - "Windows setup requires 7340032". It seems like the boot sector of the hard drive is missing or something???

seems like your Win CD is giving you the grief here at the moment..do you have a backup CD..? and why are you trying E drive..?

I type in e: to access WIN 98 cd and type in "setup".

 

[dzt]

my friend once brings me his hard disk (maxtor 30 GB, ATA133) which also locked up like yours. Set the jumper to master (not cable select or slave), and set booting sequence to floppy disk first. then use HD manager/utility floppy disk (create it from other computer, you can use Ontrack or Maxtor Official HD utility) to boot and then re-setup your HD or if still locked up, use low level format or even ZERO FILL to be sure.
Remember, your data will be lost. You have to make backup, ask your friend for help borrow you pc (you need other pc or a fine HD to backup, and create HD utility floppy disk).

 

[ScrapSilicon]

What mobo as well ..

 

[Viper96720]

If it's a maxtor try reinstalling the MBR. Here's the directions restore mbr on drive formatted with max blast If that doesn't work do a low level format and write all ones and zeros to the drive then format with max blast.