Please help......pc wise or not :(

[anarchystorm]

I know this isnt meant to be here and if any of you here recognise my name and trust me to let me phone you or MSN you for help with my SATA hard drive then please be kind enough to email me at [e-mail]

Please.... yes you can all laugh at my desperate need.

Basically, my SATA drive has Win XP on it and I need to re-format it but it wont work.... please help me

[puggit]

Not sure what you mean by you can't do it - but I guess you're trying to format the Windows partition which won't work.

Instead, try sticking in a Windows CD, and you'll be able to format the disk/partition from the install wizard.

Can't help you directly I'm afraid, as I'm in training today

[anarchystorm]

Well, I have used the CD and have so far left the pc running 18hrs. It has so far said.... examining 177800mb at 0h in 0 something similar anyway. So I have managed to be patient and have had a selection to repair or re-install so I went for the re-install option. When I get back from home tonight Im hoping it will be ready to either format or will have installed.

Should it really take that long?

What else can I do to format a SATA drive which already has Windows XP on?

Anyone, please?

[optimanc]

You cant format a drive that is in use by Windows.

The Windows XP set up disk allows you to format and partition the disk.

If you have two versions of Windows on two seperate disks on one PC try formating the drive using the version of Windows that is not on the drive you want to format.

I have writen a document which talks about formating the drive using a Windows 2000 PC. I'll and email you that, it might be of some guidence.

[anarchystorm]

Thanks optimanc.

So there is no way I can easily format the drive now that it has XP on it. How do I wipe it clean then if I ever want to start from scratch again?

I am only using the 1 drive and I just want to format it so I can install XP again.



>> Edited by anarchystorm on Wednesday 22 September 17:24

[anarchystorm]

Something new has happened. Ive worked out that it is installing XP over the top and has just started formatting but it has taken 27hrs to get to the format command on the XP installer. Why will it take so long for a 120gig SATA drive to do this?

[puggit]

Do you have any striping/mirroring setup?

[anarchystorm]

Not that I know of. I have managed to delete the partition which had the virus and XP on so now it is a blank drive. I went to format it but it didnt even move to 1% after 3 hours so I will try again tonight.

[arcturus]

What motherboard are you using and did you press F6 when the windows CD loaded to specify additional SATA/Raid drivers?

If you didn't then it wont format because it doesn't know how to read a SATA disc which is probably sat on a RAID controller. When booting from the Windows CD you have to provide the RAID driver on a floppy 'cos the drivers are not on the windows cd. Once it has that it will be able to read the SATA drive.

The RAID driver should be on the motherboard utilities cd or else you can download it from the motherboard manufacturers site.

[anarchystorm]

Yes I pressed F6 and used the RAID/SATA drivers which came with the mobo CD. Gigabyte 7VAXP Ultra MOBO. It is going through the Windows XP Installation really really slow

Im not sure what else to do now