Format gone wrong?

JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
edited March 2007 in Hardware
Hi. I wanted to format my HD because it was fulll
of ****. i searched the web and i found people saying i just had toinsert my XP cd and reboot. I did. when i now try to boot my computer it boots from the CD, and I get a blue screen where I can press F3 to quit, press enter to install windows or some other button to repair windows. problem is, no matter what I press i get a message saying that XP can't find my harddrive, and i have to reboot. I can't use my computer now. So far, all I've done is insert my XP disc and rebooted.

What shall I do?

With kind regards, and hopes for a quick solution

Joakim Larsen, Norway.

Comments

  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Somehow, it got fixed, but I would still like to format my HD, but I guess that is in another forum.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    What operating system do you intend to use after the format? Most setup utilities (including Windows) have a format utility built in.

    If this drive is going to be used merely for storage (no OS), you can format it withing Windows. :)
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    I intend to use XP. I have only one HD, with no partitions on it.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    Boot from the XP CD and proceed with the installation. At some point it will likely find the existing installation on the drive. When that happens you can either delete the existing partition and create a new one, or format the existing partition. Don't let it install a new copy of Windows or you'll still have the old one lurking and potentially causing confusion. :)
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    What do you mean? I must insert the CD and go to the screen where I press Enter to install, R to repair or F3 to quit? This is where my problem is. When I press F3 or R, i just get a screen saying that XP can't find any Harddrive, and i have to reboot my system. After I reboot I'm kinda stuck in this loop where i boot from CD, get the same messages, reboot, boot from CD, get the messages, reboot.....
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    What motherboard (brand & model) and what type of hard drive do you have? My guess is that you're going to need the SATA drivers on a floppy disk.
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    I have an Abit AN-7 motherboard and a Seagate Barracuda 160 GB harddrive. I have the drivers on a floppy, but i'm not sure how to install them...
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    When the computer is in the process of booting from the WinXP CD, watch the bottom of the screen carefully. At some point it will prompt you to hit the F5 key in order to install extra drivers. When it does, go for it.
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Right, and I have. I get a list of drivers, choose the right one (the one for XP) and it continues installing. However, when I come to the F3, Enter or R screen, I still get the same message (cant find HD), even if the driver got installed.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    There are lot's of reported quirks involving SATA drivers and their installation. I don't know of anything specific for your board, but common fixes are to either download newer drivers and copy them to a floppy, enable/disable RAID in the BIOS (even when you aren't trying to use RAID to begin with), try older drivers, or even something simple like copying the files to the root of the floppy drive. I'd experiment and see if any of these makes a difference.
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Ok, I'll try some different stuff. Can drivers the be installed from a CD?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    Windows XP can be quite peculiar about using a CD for this. A more elegant (and somewhat more difficult) way of doing it would be to slipstream them onto a copy of the WinXP CD.
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Hey. I managed to fix it. I did as you said and put the drivers in the root of the floppy. I managed to format the HD and now my computer is working again. Thanks for your help!
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Good work. Thanks for reporting back. Stay active here. We are a fun community.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    Glad you got it going, jokke. :cheers:
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