Reformatting hard drive

I have to reformat the hard drive of my Dell desktop. I believe there is a virus on the computer because none of the programs work, and the blue screen of death always pops up. I was going to try to fix the problem, but I can not run programs long enough to clean the system...I always get some type of error message. I decided to reformat the hard drive, but every time I load the OP disk it displays a message saying it can not go further because it does not detect a hard drive. I went into the BIOS, and it also says there is no hard drive installed?! I tried to boot from the OP disk again, but now my computer won't even do that...the cd rom reads the disk, but nothing happens. What can I do to resolve the issue so I can reformat the hard drive?

 

First- what version of Windows are you trying to install?
Second- what model of Dell desktop are you using?
Chances are, the HD is a SATA drive. Usually, if the drive is formatted NTFS, the Windows setup will recognize the drive.... usually. Occasionally, you'll need to load the F6 drivers when prompted by Windows setup even if the drive is already formatted. The only way to install F6 driver is from a floppy drive. AFAIK there is NO other way to do it. If you have a floppy drive, great. If not, you'll need to buy/borrow one and hook it up correctly. USB floppy drives usually work fine too, but they can be expensive (up to $50!!! versus only $10 or so for a regular floppy drive). You might consider using a third party formatting tool to reformat the drive NTFS if you don't have easy access to a floppy drive. It could be that the file system is messed up which is causing Windows setup to not see the drive correctly. You can also try booting into the Recovery Console and run chkdsk C: /r to try to repair the file system problems; this may get Windows setup to see the drive.... If you need more help, please post the version of Windows, the model of Dell, and the motherboard chipset if possible.

Keep us posted!

(BTW- there's a space before and after the "C:" in the command above)

EDIT- I just found that you have an identical post in the Drivers forum. Please: only one forum for one problem. If you post the same problem in several different forums, you not only confuse yourself with people offering different fixes, but you also confuse the folks like me offering help. So, I will post a link to this thread in the post in the Driver forum and we'll keep all replies here in the Hardware forum. Thanks.

 

OOOOPS! I forgot to address the CD problem.... do you have another bootable disc you can try? Have you checked the BIOS to see if the hard drive and/or the CD drive are seen by the system? It could be that the drive controller(s) on the motherboard are failing, in which case you'd be looking at a much more serious repair. If you have continued problems booting from a CD, try removing the hard drive from the PC (with the laptop powered off, of course! Unplug the AC adapter; removing the battery is a good idea too, just to be safe). Then try to boot from a CD just to see if it works. It's fairly rare, but I have seen faulty hard drives cause issues with other storage devices; removing the hard drive will tell us if this is the case or not....

Good luck!

 

I made an adjustment in the BIOS setting which allowed the computer to detect the hard drive so I could run my Windows XP setup cd.

Thanks for all your help!

BTW...I'm sorry about posting twice..I realized that I posted my message under drivers which was the wrong topic, so I reposted. Sorry!

 

Glad it worked out I was going to add sometimes the sata plugs at the back of the HDD can work lose and always good to check they have a good connection.

 

So I thought I had everything figured out..but now I'm having new problems. I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP Service Pack 1a. The computer is a Dell Dimension Desktop 8400. During the installation procedure I kept receiving error messages for the following files:

usbcamd2.sys
usbcamd.sys
srgb.icm
wowfax.dll
wowfaxui.dll
msyuv.dll
migwiz.exe

Also, I attempted to download and install AVG anti-virus but it keeps telling me the files are corrupt. I've tried to load several programs that were on the computer before but kept getting error messages during installation. I was able to install some on the 2nd or 3rd attempt, but other programs won't install properly.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the problem..but I went to start, run, and typed regsvr32 mshtmtl.dll but it failed. It also failed with cmds21.dll and upnhisapi.dll. Msvcrt.dll was loaded but not found. Does the computer need these files to run properly?

Any help is greatly appreciated...thanks!

 

I would try a HDD scan for now, type "sfc /scannow" with a System disk on hand this will scan the file system and try and repair any damaged files:

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

 

I would try a HDD scan for now, type "sfc /scannow" with a System disk on hand this will scan the file system and try and repair any damaged files:

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

 

Sorry I meant to say type sfc /scannow in your run box.

 

I tried that, but it didn't seem to work...I tried installing a program afterwards and I got an error messaging stating that the installer is corrupt. I also got another 2 error messages saying that zlib.dll and xprt6.dll were not found.

I'm not sure if this is all part of the same problem...but I can't get my printer to work either. I printed a test page from the printer itself and that works fine...but when I try to print from the computer I keep getting an error message. :confused

 

Btw..I'm also getting a message saying that there is an error with wauclt.exe? Before I reformatted the hard drive, there were alot of problems with the computer..I think it may have had one or more viruses. Is it possible that there is still a virus on the computer? I tried to dl AVG but it won't let me.

 

I was finally able to install my printer and now it's working properly...but I'm still getting error messages....any ideas?!

 

Well it seems you should try a good clean:

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

 

I already followed the steps in the malware removal guide yesterday..hoping that it would solve the problem, but I was still having problems after doing so... I saved the logs the programs created...should I attach them?

 

Yes in the appropriate forum, i.e. Malware.

 

Just a little suggestion - it sounds a bit like your hard drive has a bad sector(s).
If you click start, run, and type in
CHKDSK /R
tHEN RESTART, Windows will check the hard drive, on restart, and try to fix any errors,.
When it starts in Windows, run sfc /scannow again, and go from there.