setup was unable to format the partition

Hi
I have decided to clear the clutter and reinstall my os on my laptop.

I put the xp pro cd in and deleted partition and reformatted NTFS and reinstalled.

The only thing that wouldn't install was the video, so I set up the internet, downloaded and installed AVG free, and downloaded and installed video drivers.

When I started it the next day avg found win32/virut virus which I deleted (I can't remember the exact name of the button I clicked) When I rebooted it would get to the welcome screen I clicked my name and it said loading settings then logging off and back to the welcome screen.

I thought right I'll reinstall again but now all I get when I try to format the partition during setup is the message setup was unable to format the partition.

Laptop is Maxdata M-book 1000T
Athlon 1400
s3 graphics
256MB ram
Toshiba 20GB HD

Any help appreciated

 

Judging from the specs of the PC, it's an older one. The hard drive may be on it's way south, dying a slow death. Toshiba doesn't have a diagnostic for their hard drives, but the Hitachi tool works great with all brands. It's a free download here at Major Geeks. The download is for an ISO image file which you must burn to CD. If you burn it as data it will not work, so you have to use your burning software's "create disc from image file" option. It may be worded differently, but you'll get the idea. You'll boot to the CD and follow the on screen prompts to run the test; use the advanced/extended tests. The Hitachi tool can be downloaded from here http://www.majorgeeks.com/IBM_-_Hitachi_Drive_Fitness_Test_d2828.html
How did you get a virus so quickly? I've been using my home PC for about 3 years and only twice had a close call with a virus (the most recent time was from a worm that jumped on to my USB flash drive from a PC at work), but it never actually infected my PC. It got close, but was thwarted by my antivirus tools.
Anyway- test the drive. If corrupt sectors are found, allow the utility to try to repair them. You might want to consider just replacing the drive anyway. 20gb is a bit small by today's standards, and hard drives are very affordable; an 80gb drive is under $60, and a 120gb is under $70. Here's a list of laptop IDE drives available at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380+1035907889&name=ATA-6
All laptop hard drives come with at least a 1 year warranty, and most have a 3 year warranty.

 

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
Tried the program and it worked.
Yes it is quite an old laptop, so I will look into getting a new drive.
Thanks very much for your help.

 

:highfive :drink :dood :cool :major
Glad I could help!

[dlb]

 

pleasse help me.I have an acer aspire one and have been having the same problem"setup was unable to format the partiton..."the biger problem is that I do not have a cd-dvd drive and can not use the hitachi tool.i do not know how to put it on a usb stick and make the usb bootable.I think it does not even work
pleasse help..I really do not know what to do

 

Hi floriosh! Welcome to Major Geeks! :wave :major

Personally, I haven't made a bootable USB flash drive, but I think this will work:
1- download the Hitachi tool from this link; the file should be an .ISO file.
2- download TUGzip from this link. When installing TUGzip just click 'Next' all the way through. At the end of the install, there will be a little check-box for "Launch TUGzip"; go ahead and launch it; click "Next" all the way through again until you see a "Finish" button; there will be a column on the left side with a bunch of different archive formats; click the "Select All" button; click "Finish". A window will open that looks like an Explorer-type window, close it.
3- now you need to extract the Hitachi .ISO file you downloaded earlier; Right click the .ISO file you downloaded, and click the 2nd upward pointing green arrow, it will say something like "Extract to: .\filename" and the file will extract to a folder of the same name.
4- insert a blank flash drive in to a USB port; go to "My Computer" and right click the drive, select "Properties" and make sure it's formatted as FAT (I don't think they can be formatted any other way); if it isn't FAT, right click it again, select "Format" and use FAT as the File System.
5- copy the contents of the extracted Hitachi .ISO folder (from step 3) to the USB flash drive; do NOT copy the folder itself! Open the folder, click "Edit" at the top, click "Select All", right click on one of the files and use "Send To >" to copy everything to the USB flash drive.
6- keep the flash drive inserted, restart the PC, and set the boot order to boot to the USB device first (or use the temporary boot menu to boot to the flash drive; many PCs use ESC or F9 or F10 or F12 to access the boot menu).
Hopefully this will work!!! If it doesn't, go to our good friend Google and search for info on how to make a flash drive bootable; I have some links posted below if you need 'em, the 1st and 2nd are a bit older, but the info is still solid. Try the steps above first, and if the drive doesn't boot, use the info in these links:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346-5928902.html (this is about making a bootable XP flash drive, but the section about making the flash drive bootable is informative)
http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2004/10/utility-to-make-usb-flash-driv.html (this one has some links that are no longer valid, but if you scroll down and try the other links, you should be able to get the HP USB format utility; there's TONS of helpful info in this link even if you aren't able to get the HP format tool from the links in this article; read all the info and you'll know EXACLTY what's required)
http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm (straightforward steps on how to make a bootable USB flash drive plus downloads for utilities; excellent resource!)

Let us know how it turns out!!! GOOD LUCK!!!!

 

Hmmm.... it seems that some of the files from the bootdisk.com link are no longer free from that site; they were free the last time I checked about 4 months ago. However, some creative Google-ing should get you the files needed -OR- use PayPal at the bootdisk site and for only $4US you can download any/all the files mentioned.

 

hello dlb,thank you for your help.I tried the method you suggested but with no result.It did not boot the aplication.The reason I think is in the folowing caracteristic of the hitachi tool:
" Does not support Microdrive Digital Media products.
- Supports all Travelstar HDDs, except 8E, 10E and C4K series.
- Does not support Endurastar products.
- Does not support external USB or Firewire attached drives.
- Compatible only with x86-based processors.
- Does not support the PC which loads Intel ICH9M chipset."
I think what it sais there is that it can not be installed from a usb stick.I am curently working with another laptop...an asus x51rl but my acer aspire one is not working...I can not get pass the format problem.I will try other methods that u sugested and tell you abot it as soon as I get a result. But pleasse,untill then,If you have another suggestion,tell me about it.The easyest solution now is to get an external cd-dvd rom but I do not have such a thing.Thank you again for your help