My pc wouldnt start. I got the message windows failed to start etc etc and had the options of safe mode etc etc. None of these would work it would rattle on for about 3 mins then re boot. So i shoved in my xp disc and looked at some of the options available. Chkdsk /r reported an unrecoverable error. I opted to do a clean installation, however format stalls at 39% and thats it.

Is there any other way to confirm that its a hd failure, ie is there a dos utility that will confirm.

Thanks in advance
And best wishes for the new year.
Dave

it does not sound like a HD failure, a hard drive failure usualy gives a beep and a message "primary drive 0 not detected"

have you tried the normal format AND quick format?

enter the recovery console and type
/fixboot
/fixmbr

if that doesnt work, can you put the HD in another pc (as slave) and format it from there... if not, do you have a second internal HD to install windows on temorerally?

if not, on the screen where you chose where to install windows, can you delete the partition (by pressing D)
and then create one (by pressing c) of about 15GB (150,000mb) and then create another partition that takes up the rest of the space then install windows on the 15GB partition?

windows only needs about 3-5GB but when you install programs, they install files in the windows directory... i used to have windows on a 10gb partion and after about 3 months i kept getting messages saying that my drive has under 200mb left...

Actually, if Chkdsk reports an unrecoverable error and the format during the install of Windows stops (if it was a FULL format rather than a quick format), then that would indicate a pretty significant hardware fault on the disk.

If you want further confirmation, you should find out the make and model of the hard disk and then visit the manufacturer's web site. They often have diagnostics tools that you can run from floppy disk or CD. These are bootable so that you can use them even without a working Windows installation.

oh right, sorry

Thanks for that guys, i'll have a go.
Dave