help with hard drive formatting

krispee

krispee

krispee

Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2008
Posts
17
hi
have been building a new system recently and decided to start to boot up and install everything.....
i have an Asus P5E3 mobo with 2 gig of DDR3 ram, a Core 2 Duo 2.66ghz 8200 cpu, a Seagate 320gb HD, a 8800gt 512 gfx card, a dvd writer and a floppy......
having booted up initially i found that i needed to flash the bios which i duly did and which went well using Asus EZflash utility.....onwards to the windows install i started by using the xp pro sp2 cd and got as far as the disc formatting after partitioning the drive into 1 large primary....formating went well until it reached the magic 100%, then nothing, it just stopped there and did nothing, didn`t move, for hours....finally i got fed up and rebooted, which screwed things up and i had to start again with floppy discs this time, and yet again it formatted fine until it got to 100%, then stopped again.....i tried a third time but this time i created 2 separate partitions and used the smaller one [80 gig] to install windows on, and again it reached 100% and stopped....just says 'setup is formatting...' and just stops there.......
please can anyone help me with this?
has anyone else had a problem like this?

i`m sorry if this is in the wrong place wasn`t sure where to put it....

thanks
kris
 
If you have 2 Dvd Drives,try using the other 1,or perhaps try get another copy of windows,also if you got spare computer,install on that and see if problem persists.
 
tried another, actually cd, drive and also another version of win xp pro, same outcome.....i`m actually installing xp pro sp2 on a sata drive, but it gets past the partitioning and bios shows it there so it must be recognising the drive......
i`ve tried 2 versions of xp pro, tried 2 different drives.....tried different partitions, single partitions, updating the bios.....trying to think of what i might have tried and left out, can`t think of anything......
when i google this what comes up mostly are problems with sata, but that`s old news now, most modern boards seem to have sata drivers onboard, and mine has certainly seen the drive.....just can`t get past 100% formatting.....
i haven`t got another computer so can`t go down that route yet......

is there something i should be doing on the motherboard?


kris
 
Last edited:
With a windows 98 floppy boot disk, boot into dos, type /fdisk mbr

Reboot using the floppy again and use /fdisk to delete any partiton you have and then create a new primary partition. Then format it.

See if that works.

You can download a 98 boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/ make sure you choose 98se.

Edit: Bugger forgot your drive must be FAT32 to be seen in dos, try formatting it with xp as FAT32 then if it still gets stuck at 100% try what I said above and see if it is seen in dos.
 
Last edited:
Installing an OS on a 320Gb Partition is ridiculous anyway :confused:
Make a far smaller partition for windows better still make a tiny OS partition and re-locate the default Programs directory if you know how!
 
Green-Peace said:
Installing an OS on a 320Gb Partition is ridiculous anyway :confused:
Make a far smaller partition for windows better still make a tiny OS partition and re-locate the default Programs directory if you know how!
Click to expand...

i did actually try 2 partitions [i did actually mention that in my first post], one much smaller, on which to install the OS, and there is no need to be patronising!
i still had the same result, no way past 100%......

tried the win 98 boot disc but you are right, can`t use it, although that might be because i have already partitioned the drive, i could delete the partitions, reboot, and try the win98 boot disc then, it might work......and i can`t try the sata drive in my other pc as that doesn`t support sata.....

kris
 
Green-Peace said:
re-locate the default Programs directory if you know how!
Click to expand...

This is pretty pointless without a copy of the registry isn't it?

keeping data and other standalone items on another partition makes sense since windows is as stable as me on a saturday night! but putting the programs on another partition does what? doesn't even increase disk performance since it's the same disk.

If you could put them (as well as the rest of the system files) on a decent filesystem and not have it get fragmented like NTFS/FAT and windows then i could see a reason. But why do you put it on another partition?
 
Ethics said:
This is pretty pointless without a copy of the registry isn't it?

keeping data and other standalone items on another partition makes sense since windows is as stable as me on a saturday night! but putting the programs on another partition does what? doesn't even increase disk performance since it's the same disk.

If you could put them (as well as the rest of the system files) on a decent filesystem and not have it get fragmented like NTFS/FAT and windows then i could see a reason. But why do you put it on another partition?
Click to expand...

i know what you are saying, i was only trying it as an option because formatting the 320 HD as a whole partition didn`t work, but then neither did the 2 partitions.......obviously that isn`t the problem so i need to focus on other things.....

kris
 
I've just had a similar problem with a new Samsung 750GB F1. It would format, but would then disappear. I ended up returning it and getting a 75GB Seagate 7200.11.

I'd try formatting it in another pc if you can.
 
i`ve tried a lot of things since i last posted, had a company nearby partition and format my HD which they did, i then tried to install again but only got as far as the setup files when it stuck at 9-11 percent or so [several times], and then tried downgrading the speed of the ram a little but no cigar.....lastly i took one ram module out and it did actually get past the setup but when i booted again, as it tells it to, it would get past post but then come with an error accessing the disk, couldn`t access the disk error, something like that, anyway, sent it to the repair company who said it might be a bad HD, so we`ll see......

kris
 
System boot disk error?

The hard drive needs to be given priority in the bios, some arent smart enough to figure it out, just enter the bios and set the HDD as the boot device when you get that far.

Could be the port on the mobo i guess if it keeps losing the drive...
 
Ethics said:
This is pretty pointless without a copy of the registry isn't it?
Click to expand...

Not at all!
When I build computers for customers I always supply them with a custom made auto-booting restore DVD which can recover from any software problem in a matter of minutes (in DOS obviously).
If you don't move the default programs folder then this is very difficult to do as it would require many DVD's as the ghost image would be huge once programs are installed.
I also find it helps keep the computer snappy as the OS drive fragments at a much slower rate due to very little extra data being written to it.

I never use a C: drive bigger than 10Gb and to prevent numptys from messing up my system I hack the registry so that Documents and Settings is moved away from C: and onto E:.
That way when a customer uses my recovery DVD all their bookmarks, settings, outlook pst, desktop files ...etc ...etc are exactly as they were just before the problem. ie NO personal files are lost during the recovery process as the ONLY files that are overwritten are generic windows files.

All that they need too do is re-install software that was installed after the system was sold so that the registry settings are placed back. Most of these programs will retain their settings as they are normally stored in Documents and Settings which has been moved and does not get touched when a restore is done.
 
Last edited:
t31os said:
System boot disk error?

The hard drive needs to be given priority in the bios, some arent smart enough to figure it out, just enter the bios and set the HDD as the boot device when you get that far.

Could be the port on the mobo i guess if it keeps losing the drive...
Click to expand...

the bios showed floppy, cd, then hard drive as the boot sequence i think, so it would read it eventually anyway wouldn`t it, guess i could change the priority but as it is still at the repair shop i can`t do that yet.....

kris
 
Green-Peace said:
Not at all!
When I build computers for customers I always supply them with a custom made auto-booting restore DVD which can recover from any software problem in a matter of minutes (in DOS obviously).
If you don't move the default programs folder then this is very difficult to do as it would require many DVD's as the ghost image would be huge once programs are installed.
I also find it helps keep the computer snappy as the OS drive fragments at a much slower rate due to very little extra data being written to it.

I never use a C: drive bigger than 10Gb and to prevent numptys from messing up my system I hack the registry so that Documents and Settings is moved away from C: and onto E:.
That way when a customer uses my recovery DVD all their bookmarks, settings, outlook pst, desktop files ...etc ...etc are exactly as they were just before the problem. ie NO personal files are lost during the recovery process as the ONLY files that are overwritten are generic windows files.

All that they need too do is re-install software that was installed after the system was sold so that the registry settings are placed back. Most of these programs will retain their settings as they are normally stored in Documents and Settings which has been moved and does not get touched when a restore is done.
Click to expand...

that`s a pretty interesting setup, and only for those with more experience i think, my knowledge isn`t anywhere near that so i`ll leave that to the pros at this time......

kris
 
You may have several areas on the drive that have damaged clusters. It will not matter where or how much of a partition you create, if there are damaged clusters, you will keep getting hangs/errors.

Have you tried a different HDD in the machine to see if it will install? Do you have S.M.A.R.T enabled on the motherboards bios?
 
Don't suppose it was formatted with fast format?
I've seen many apps that offer fast format on unformatted drives, where I'm not sure it's such a great idea, on some OS's (including older windows) you'd never be given the chance.

Things to try.....
Low level format.
Using PM8 bootdisc
Using linux bootdisc to either just repartition and format, or, if you know your way, you can test the drive quite well there too.

Are there any known issues with your BIOS?
Have you tried a different connector lead (I've seen SATA-II drives acting the goat in all manner of weird ways all because of iffy cables, IDE's tend to just fail).

Have you set up an overclock?
Is your Ram correctly timed and powered.
Is the disc access mode stuff all set right in BIOS?

Does the board have 2 different disc controllers, that both act the same?

Sorry, I know you've probably gone through all these already, but it's the first dozen things I'd try from where you are now.
 
As for the storage debate....
C: 50 GB, windows and apps
D: 'kin HOOJ, games (many of which run "uninstalled" anyway)
E: Also huge, application data, in my case sound and sample banks.
 
wiggins: i haven`t had the chance of trying another drive as i didn`t have one, simple as that, i could buy another but don`t want to do that unless i really have to, and i did actually test the drive with Seatools from Seagate and it found no errors, i would presume bad clusters would have come up on the test?

thegoonden: i didn`t take the option of a quick format, don`t know what a PM8 bootdisc is, and i thought Linux and windows weren`t compatable?
and do you need some special software to do a low level format?
there are issues with the latest Asus BIOS update and support for Quad Core`s but nothing with drives [or anything else that i`ve seen on the Asus forum], and as i mentioned before, when you go through BIOS it does actually recognise everything, well sais it does anyway......
it was suggested somewhere that reduciing the timing of your ram might make the difference so i tried to lower it to 1066 but it didn`t work [nothing else was amiss in the ram timings that i could see], and no, haven`t tried to OC in any way, was savinig that until windows was loaded.....
the board has only one controller that i know of from reading the Asus board info......
i did try and partition into 2 logical drives, one smaller and one larger, but that didn`t work either......

at the moment the computer in question is still at the computer repair shop, haven`t heard anything from them yet.....

kris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom