partition information

[fetterman]

i have a sony desk top that runs for a few minutes that freezes.  when i tried to use the system restore disk i get the following message "cannot normally execute the intial setting of partition information".  I am not sure what is happening but i suspect the hard drive.

[Aardobard]

Does it load into Windows?

[Broni]

This is not Windows message, but Sony's recovery CD message.
You may try to contact Sony, but it looks like hard drive problem to me.

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD, and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

[fetterman]

would load into windows and run for a short time before it locked up.

[Quantos]

Do what Broni suggested.