Re: Help with Re-Format

I am going to try the third party sata drivers. I do not have a floppy as it
is a laptop. Will it install from CD? USB does not work as I tried. Do you
have a link for the WD seatools? The HD is a WD HD "WD1200BVS"

"DL" wrote:

You cannot format the system drive from within windows, that would be like
cutting a branch whilst you were sitting on it.

You can format using the installation disk, once the PC is set to boot from
cd.
If you boot from cd & win cannot 'find' the hd that may mean either, its a
sata hd and you may need to use the F6 option to install third party drivers
from floppy early in the installation process.
or that there is a lose connection, or the mobo controler is faulty, or the
hd is faulty.
Determine the make of your hd, visit their site and download / create their
floppy or cd boot disk checking utility. Or maybe the WD seatools utility
will work for you.

"Sgt_Butter" <SgtButter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:01F71489-28DA-4472-8449-0123A2595070@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok a bit of a long one but I am desperate.

Gateway Laptop MX6290.
Mobile Intel T2050 @ 1.60mhz - 2cpu
1g mem


Been having issues , long start up, continous freezing and now turns on,
goes to loading windows black screen but stays continously loading. After
about 10 mins , it automatically restarts and does it again. Will not load
into windows.

Have gone to safe mode to try windows restore. Cannot restore to ANY
restore
points. Tried Gateways Recovery software suite and it is asking for
recovery
CD#1. Do not have as it did not come with it. Unable to create recovery cd
as
it cannot find restore partition on hard drive. Trying to obtain from
Gateway
but support is closed right now.

Have tried to reformat from Safe mode with dos using format C:. I recieve
"Format cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Format
may run if this volume is dismounted first" Selected to dismount volume
and
recieve error "Cannot lock the drive. The volume is still in use"

Have tried to format with windows disk and recieve error that windows
cannot
access the hard disk. I thought this might be a power setting to the hard
drive but cannot change anything in the bios as it has no power options(
Phoenix ) Changed the battery power to always on in Safe mode but still
does
not work. This is the same for trying to repair.

Have gone into safe mode to try and reinstall winxp from there using the
run
command and typing " c:\windows\i386\winnt32". All is well until the PC
restarts. It starts to load the setup screen then I get the blue screen of
death with the error "STOP 0x0000007b (0xf7a57524, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000,
0x00000000) It also says to try CHKDSK /f and I get error chkdsk cannot
run
because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like this
volume
to be checked the next time the system restarts? The file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock the current drive.

I have even gone to unplugging the hard drive and replugging it in. Still
nothing. Im even at the point where I am going to try and unplug the power
cable to the drive and re plug it back in when I get to the reformat
screen?

Anybody have any other ideas other then buying a new hard drive or
smashing
this PC?





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