Topic: Help with re-formatting

[john313]

thanks for all the responses guys and girls, just one more point, im having a moment and have forgotten how to save a programme over 2 disks, i thought it was just as easy as saving it to A: and it would split itself? :-[

[Sandra]

Hi John, there are full instructions on that site I gave you the link for.
All you have to do is download the program and run it from your hard drive and it will send it to floppy one then ask you to put floppy 2 in from what I remember  
I cant remember if you have to format them as dos startup or not but if you check on the site it will explain it all :doggie:

[john313]

Thanks - Its been a long day! brain-work-very-slow- ::)now.

[Adept]

brain-work-very-slow- ::)now.

Hey John, don't feel bad. That's the normal state for most of us

[Simon]

Would it be a stupid idea to suggest FDISK?  It would certainly be a lot quicker than zero filling a hard drive, and you should then be able to format and load ME from the installation disk.

[Sandra]

Its obviously having a problem formatting itself Simon so I think that using Fdisk would give the same result, thats why I suggested the seagate to do a zero fill then he knows there are definately no bits left on thr drive  

[Adept]

now after running format c:/, it runs through the format, verifies it then i go to E:setup, that kicks off and runs through that blue box with all the checks in, then i get a message saying now checking sysreg (or something similar) and it just hangs

Sounds to me as if the format is going through OK Sandra. Its the "sysreg" bit (which I think may actually be scanreg) that is causing the problem...

[Sandra]

Has it still got a registry after a format then ?
Anyway if he does the zero fill thing he wont have anything on so should be ok after that, unless his installation CD is faulty or damaged  

[Adept]

Has it still got a registry after a format then ?

Obviously not. So it has to be the alternative option of a memory fault. Isn't there a utility that Dack usually recommends to test memory for errors?

[Sandra]

Yes there is Adept, unfortunately he'll be at home now and not be able to access the net to get it  
I downloaded it last week to see what it did and you boot from floppy so it would presumably be ok for a pc without an OS on  

Get it from here :

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

[john313]

thanks for everyones help, zero filling the hard drive seemed to get me past yesterdays problem, the only problem now is when i get 10% of the way through setup i get an error message saying "could not copy windows files" then it just stops again.  is it time to get a new hard drive?  or just try another o/s? >

[Adept]

is it time to get a new hard drive?  or just try another o/s? >

Hmmm.... Did you say you had a copy of XP you could try? I'm wondering if XP's setup program may have more in the way of diagnostic information to give you.

[john313]

yeah, ive got xp too, but i wont be able to get my hands on it until tomorrow. i ll give it a whirl tomorrow night, and let you know how that went, if that doesnt work though im completely snookered.

[Adept]

if that doesnt work though im completely snookered.

Nah! There's loads to do yet

You mentioned that you had a Maxtor hdd fitted. It might be worth going to Maxtor's website and downloading a copy of their PowerMax utility. This will give you a definitive diagnostic of your HDD.

[john313]

thanks, i ll give that a whirl tonight and post the results a.s.a.p.
Thanks again for all your help guys!!!