Can't figure out how to format my HDD

J-FRO

J-FRO

J-FRO

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Basically my PC wont boot past the black "starting windows" screen with the little animation thing. It just stops and wont do anything else.

I've taken each of my sticks of RAM out and tried booting with only one of each to no avail. I can only think this is down to me downloading something dodgy yesterday and it now not wanting to restart.

So, assuming its a virus I'm happy to just re-format my HDD but I can't figure out how to do it in the MSi BIOS. I've got all the relevant CD's etc but I can't seem to find anything that leads me to be able to format it.

Any help would be much appreciated ladies and gents
 
Set the BIOS to boot from CD, then start up the PC, you will then be prompted to press any key to boof from CD/DVD.

Probably best to try a windows repair incase its just windows acting up.
 
Yeah I've done the whole

"Press any key to boot from CD or DVD"

pressed enter

"Windows is loading files..."

Then it goes to the starting windows screen again and just stops. All I can see is that first little red animation as if its about to start and then it just stops. Rather confusing :(
 
if you dont have access to another hdd if you could get a friends system to run your hdd as a slave and could format from their system and see if you could re load windows on to yours again that way?
 
Good idea seandog, will give that a bash in a little while once dad has gone back to work and stopped using his PC.
 
if you manage to get it formatted make sure you install windows back on you system or it'll probably want to re install due to different hardware from an install on your dads system, good luck bud
 
Issue is still there.

Completely wiped and reformatted my hard drive, now tried to reboot from CD drive to make a fresh install of windows 7. But, it's still freezing at the black "Starting Windows" screen, with just the first red dot in sight.

So this can't be a software issue, it has to be hardware, right? I entered BIOS and the DRAM voltage was set to 1.402 on auto, so I manually set it to 1.55 in case it just wasn't getting enough power. But that's done nothing either.

Any thoughts anyone?
 
Definitely sounds like a system stability issue. Make sure you RAM is set to the correct voltage and plonk all settings on auto to get everything else as stock as you can.
 
Hmmm do I need to re-set my BIOS or anything so that it know's there is no operating system installed on the PC?

I.e. should I hit CMOS button?
 
Well re setting BIOS isn't gonna make it not not work :) may as well give it a go as it's not gonna do any harm and it'll rule that out aswell as a possible issue

*edit* also try to boot your dads PC with the cd to rule out a dodgy disc as the culprit too, if it is ya can download a new copy from Microsoft and re use your product key
 
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Still not working. This is very confusing. Can't think what else it can be.

Could the mobo cause this sort of problem? Or are CPU's known to freeze up? Or is it most likely to be my RAM?

This is where it stops by the way, right after I've clicked "boot from CD", it loads windows in a white bar at the bottom of the screen, then gets to this and stops.

P1000763.jpg
 
Slave the drive again and run Disk Check or get Testing software from the Hitachi website to check for errors. If it's under warranty can usually return it. Could be the disk failing if it returns error, it can sometimes fix them automatically but if it happens again that's a sign it's on it's last legs. Only other thing I can think of to try.
 
But I can't really see it being the HDD if it won't even start loading up for a fresh re-install of windows. Admittedly it is an old HDD, but the problem seems to lay in it not wanting to load the disk for some reason. Which makes me think its the RAM, but the MSI BIOS memory test said the memory was all ok and I don't have another machine I can test the DDR3 in.
 
Ask friend to burn you ubuntu live cd and try starting that from cd.
If it works fine then you can rule out any mobo/cpu/psu/ram/gpu issue out so it will leave either sata ports or hdd.
 
Just replaced SATA cables on my HDD and DVD ROM drive, no difference there I'm afraid stulid.

What will ubuntu live do?

And nope not tried to boot from CD on dad's PC because he's got an old pentium 4 system here, which I'm assuming uses DOS, and I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to that :(
 
IMO I'd check the disk to eliminate a scratch or something causing the windows boot hang, I'd could be as simple as that and could save an exhaustive complete hardware check
 
yeah I see what you mean, but this is doing exactly what it did before I formatted my hdd. It's exactly the same. Gets to the loading screen in the picture above and just stops.

To confirm, in BIOS i have disabled everything apart from the DVD ROM drive, which is, as far as I an remember the right thing to do when installing windows from a disc.
 
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