Very very slow HD format

[meltdown75]

Hi all

I'm working on my brother's computer today, trying to do a reinstall of XP pro for him. He was getting "disk read errors" on startup and when Windows setup displayed his drive info, there was nothing on the drive (it appeared to be formatted).

Anyway now when I'm trying to format the drive, it hangs at 0%. what gives? any help would be appreciated.

- melty

 

[Uncle Bob]

faulty hard disk?

 

[meltdown75]

that's what i'm thinking... bump!

 

[meltdown75]

HOLY CRAP

ok it's at 1%. 20 friggin minutes later. Sorry for the waste of a thread guys. there she goes 2%. whew

 

[meltdown75]

ok it has been almost an hour and it is still at 4%. is the drive screwed? 120gb.

 

[meltdown75]

still at 4% guys any suggestions? would a quick format be ok/work any better? i never choose quick format but perhaps it would work? help

 

[meltdown75]

i rebooted and am going to try quick format. this is the worst thread evar... i'm pwning myself

 

[montag451]

Firstly, is DMA enabled in the BIOS for that channel that the HDD is on?

Interrupting a format isn't a good idea - I hope that hasnt screwed the drive up.
If you can get awat with a quick format, then fine.
But I think that you will need to just go on with taking the time to do a full format.
I am not sure, but I think the % starts going faster as you near the end of the format - might start from the beginning and go out - faster outside

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: montag451
Firstly, is DMA enabled in the BIOS for that channel that the HDD is on?

Interrupting a format isn't a good idea - I hope that hasnt screwed the drive up.
If you can get awat with a quick format, then fine.
But I think that you will need to just go on with taking the time to do a full format.
I am not sure, but I think the % starts going faster as you near the end of the format - might start from the beginning and go out - faster outside

thanks montag... it is going through the XP install process now. i partitioned the drive into 2 ~60 gig partitions and continued on with quick format. Appears to be fine for now, although I am worried about the drive a bit as i've never seen a format hang that long, and also because i've never used the quick format option. as for the BIOS settings everything looks ok in there. thx for the response...

 

[montag451]

well done, but at first opportunity do a scandisk - thorough - THAT WILL TAKE some time - make sure no screensaver or AVirus or anything is running when you do this.

 

[meltdown75]

thanks montag. i was beginning to think no one hung out in this forum anymore. lol like that would ever happen.

 

[montag451]

sorry - i was busy ;-)

 

[montag451]

how is it going so far?

 

[meltdown75]

Not bad. I am doing various Windows updates. Frickin HP doesn't have a USB controller driver listed on their website though, so I'm not yet able to use my USB key which contains all of my vital apps. other than that, everything is going fine.

 

[montag451]

what about the mobo chipset drivers cd? that should have the required drivers on it.

Or is it a pci usb controller?

 

[meltdown75]

yeah, he doesn't have any of the CDs that came with. I'm sure they're google-able...

 

[montag451]

if you know the mobo, then it shuld be easy to get them - really - what should be done on a clean installation is:
INSTALL OS
install sp and patches
install chipset drivers
install vga drivers
install sound/mm drivers
go through the other h/w drivers one at a time - reboot between each one
then - software

 

[meltdown75]

well, i went ahead and applied the motherboard BIOS update, and once sp2 was installed and XP was able to search the internet for device drivers, everything installed fine. it's working great now, i think i'm pretty much done with this one. Thanks again montag... add me to your buddy list so i can continue to nag you when i have problems

 

[montag451]

you were lucky this time punk ;-)

i didn't see your pm for some time. Whenever you feel upto a nag, lemme know.
good luck

 

[meltdown75]

well i sent him packing with xp pro sp2 and all the updates, so he's good to go. dvd test was fine, all drivers & stuff updated.

one concern however is that there were 3 memory errors which took place at random times during various windows update processes.. BSODs. each time i just reset & rebooted and eventually everything seemed ok after.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
well i sent him packing with xp pro sp2 and all the updates, so he's good to go. dvd test was fine, all drivers & stuff updated.

one concern however is that there were 3 memory errors which took place at random times during various windows update processes.. BSODs. each time i just reset & rebooted and eventually everything seemed ok after.

My god, you are going to make lifer today.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: jadinolf

Originally posted by: meltdown75
well i sent him packing with xp pro sp2 and all the updates, so he's good to go. dvd test was fine, all drivers & stuff updated.

one concern however is that there were 3 memory errors which took place at random times during various windows update processes.. BSODs. each time i just reset & rebooted and eventually everything seemed ok after.

My god, you are going to make lifer today.

i know. i get chatty sometimes. sorry, lamest thread ever. it will happen again.