can't format drive help please!!!!

my pc crashed and i attempted a windows repair (XP) and i received a nice blue screen that said windows found an error and will now quit installation and there was some technical info at the bottom..
Stop. 0x0000008e(0xc0000005, 0xf8b41e4b, 0xf870f7e4, 0x00000000)
Setupdd.sys - Address f8b15000, Date Stamp 40517a39

all i want to do is reformat/wipe disc and reinstall windows.


if someone could assist me i would greatly appreciate it.

 

Before that, try Last Known Good Configuration.

Power up the computer. Tap F8 until it brings up a menu with like 10 things. If this is your first time with F8, tap it once a second, for like 10 seconds. This will bring up a menu before Windows loads. It will say things like Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Debugging, etc. Look toward the bottom. You will see an option for Last Known Good Configuration. Select it. This may undo what caused the blue screen, so you can boot normally.

 

thanks but now its worse....
pc won't even boot ..........
error reads " insert boot corrector cd"
what's that?
help!?!

 

It crashed during repair? your best bet is to reformat and reinstall.

 

909davidjohn, Is "insert boot corrector cd" the exact verbatim error message?

If so, google searches for that exact string in both web and groups turn up nothing, which is rare.

 

When you go to the Wxp boot screen (after passing the bios and "hit any key to boot from CD" pops up) Select install fresh copy of wxp (or somthing by that name) . Dont select repair/recovery console. When it (IF IT)says windows has found a OS installed on this hard drive select to continue installing anyways; it should show you the partitions on the drive if any. Make sure you dont have any partitions if it's a single drive [IE C: drive 20GB free D: drive 10GB [free]. If so please delete it. Once you proceed onto the next step select Reformat drive using NTFS file system. DO NOT select "leave file system intact" or "NTFS (quick)". The format should take 1-2hrs and should follow onto the windows is preparing installation screen.

IF you cant even get to this STEP of the process you can try removing your CMOS battery for 1-5mins and poping it back in; this would reset any weird setup your bios has that might be causing the problem. Also if you want to make sure the WXP cd boots please go into your bios and under the boot menu 1st one should be "Cd-rom" and not Floppy/Hard disk.