trying to recover allocation unit

[Chickens-on-smack]

hey guys
I went to format my computer yesterday.I got up to about 5% and then it comes up "trying to recover allocation unit".Now i started formating just over 15 hours ago and it still seems to be making progress.
Any idea what this means and what i should do about it?

[profdlp]

Run the tests from the hard drive manufacturer. :)

[Chickens-on-smack]

thanks a tonne ill post back when im done

[Chickens-on-smack]

ok so im ready to go.I placed my windows xp cd into the cd drive and i got to the BIOS Settings and select boot from cd, I save and exit.I then wait for it to boot and it comes up

Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: No Bootable CDROM Found
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

now i know the cd is bootable because i used it to install it on this machine before

[Thrax]

How did you burn the CD? What program?

[Chickens-on-smack]

It's an legitimate windows xp professional OEM CD

[Thrax]

Sorry, I didn't read well. I thought you were attempting to boot from the diagnostics tools provided by your hard-drive's manufacturer. Do you have multiple CD-ROMs? Typically ROM boot hits one or another ROM, but not both, though this is changing.

[Chickens-on-smack]

i have two cd drives in it and was able to boot from the master cd rom before running the diagnostics. I have tried resetting the bios settings and have pulled the cables out and back in again buit im still not having much luck
___________________________________________________________________
Update: I switched it back on and im having the same problem before i started formatting the drive,The Drive is not detected at the post screen.Does this mean i have to buy a new HDD?:sad2:
___________________________________________________________________

I changed the cable for the hdd and its all good now,I just need to boot from cd