anyone know how to wipe the hard drive i tryed it now it says its currupt and wont format i need it for my pc

 

insert the windows xp installation CD and delete all partitions. that will wipe everything off the hard disk. then do a fresh installation of windows.

you do this by restarting computer then boot from CD, go through the menus to install XP fresh not repair, and then delete all partitions so you have x amount of unpartitioned space then create 2 partitions. One 10GB for windows and the other x amount of space for all your data. best way.

 

Firstly, let's establish what version of Windows you have ?

Then let's establish how / where this information is given to you ?

 

its on a second hard drive and its xp

 

What exactly was your method? id stick an xp cd in and turn the pc on, then freshly install xp from the menu that will be displayed when the pc boots the cd.
Is that what you did?

 

yep, exactly what I said above. should work mate if the drive isnt fooked completely.

if not let me know. have something else you can try

 

Use the hard disk tools associated by the supplier of your hard disk, a lot of these tools such as those for maxtor are found on the ultimateboot CD as well as the hard disk makers support pages.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Zero the hard disk to wipe it fully, FDISK and FORMAT never does this fully and the hard disk data can always be recovered if these are used

 

i went to install windows xp on it and it said the drive was corupt so i went back on wiped it and now it wont format

 

the diagnostic tools for each company that makes the drive should have the ability to do diagnostic and repairs

 

I was going to suggest now, the jumper settings. What is your hard drive jumper now and what other drives do you have CD/DVD?

The jumper is located on the back of the hard drive itself near the power connector.

 

is that the one wiht ten pins

 

8 pins and the sticker on top of the drive will show jumper locations and settings but I doubt that will help your issue, if its the only drive on the IDE cable set it up as a master, if its being used with another device on the cable it should be set as cable select

 

It should be the master like unseenmenace said, but change the jumper to the next one along, then if that doesnt work the next one along again. the little jumper clip goes vertically on i.e like this

: : : :

 

i know how to do that it was set as a slave then and now it says its corupt its worked like that for months

 

think its just fucked then mate. luckily though, hard drives are not expensive. What are you looking for and I can advise.

 

just a 50 gb one to use everyday nothing pricy the cheaper the better

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=14&subcat=167

that ought to do the trick. Its a SATA drive so it will be a faster than an IDE.

If your motherboard doesnt have SATA connectors then this IDE drive should be OK too

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=14&subcat=59

 

how do in know if it has sata what do the connections look like

 

Righto, you have 2 hard drives ? A 50 gig one and another ? And this 50 gig one had windows xp installed on it ? And you have now formatted it and when it come's to copying files that's when it say's it's corrupted ??

 

it all started when i got a problem with the 50 gb harddrive i went to start up and the comp had a file missing so i couldnt load it so i connected my 13 gb hard drive i keep it as a spare and diconnected my 160gb harddrive and plugged in the 50gb one and wiped it it was fine went to copy my xp form the 13 gb to the 50 and it coppied and still wouldnt load so i wiped it snd tried installing xp on it and its says its corupt and you cant format it

 

even still if its in just put the windows boot CD in and load from it instead of loading from hard drive then go to do a fresh XP install and just wipe all partitions off (that will wipe the disk entirely) then install XP freshly. That is of course if it will let you do that and it detects the hard drive.

IDE is a big 24 pin connector on the motherboard.

SATA is a little USB like connector. colour coded either orange or purple or both on the motherboard

 

ive check the comp fo connections tried a new install but it said cannot install

 

its fooked then.

Ł30 or so will sort your problems out.

 

yeah i rekon its shagged wont let me insatll on it or format it its going in the bin and a new one i dont have a sata so ill order a neew one soon

 

did you try zero-ing the drive with drive tools ?

 

i dont know how to do that

 

the CD's just boot and you select what you want to do you can download these from whoever makes your drive or from the link above, the can repair a lot disk damage...you can check the drive and repair it in may cases

 

ill try it the morrow thanks everyone

 

Wow people need to check there posts for spelling before they hit submit

 

Try making an fdisk with the format command on the fdik and run that through dos

if you can get hold of the command called smartdrv and run that before formatting theHDD it will format a lot faster

use this if the other ways formatting a HDD through windows does not work