Please help!!! Labtop Hard Drive

[night_hawk13]

The original hard drive on my labtop recently went bad so I bought a new one, I loaded the recovery disc into my computer and loaded the operating system (windows me) and it says everthing is fine, reboot your computer. I reboot and I get "General error, failed writing to drive C: ) When I try to reload my recovery discs a second time it says it cannot create partition, all disk space is currently in use. This is the second hard drive this has happened on in a row so Im pretty sure its not the drive. I was thinking perhaps the IDE cable? But I really have no idea please help!!!

[Raptor]

Did you format before you attempted to write anything onto the hard disk?

[night_hawk13]

I thought the recovery disc that came with the labtop would format it for me. So I guess no I havnt formatted. I dont have any floppys atm is there anyway to make a boot disc onto a CD-R?

[Raptor]

I am not aware wheter that is possible or not. Perhaps you should take a look on a website that provides people with bootdisks in order to determine if it can be done or not.

[night_hawk13]

Well I installed the book disc, and formatted my hard drive, but when it comes to 100% it says format complete, next line is could not create boot, next line format aborted. Im about to trow the thing out the window.

[Computer_Commando]

Download the diagnostic tools from the manufacturer of the hard drive you bought.

[2k dummy]

Did you Fdisk before format?

[night_hawk13]

Yes I formatted, now can anyone give me some ideas on what it might be, insted of more questions?

[2k dummy]

You did not answer my question. I didn't ask if you formatted, I asked if you ran Fdisk BEFORE you formatted.

[night_hawk13]

No I didnt, but now it wont let me erase the partitions or delete anything off the HD without an error.

[2k dummy]

Boot the machine with a boot disk. At the A> prompt type fdisk and press enter. Choose to delete any existing partitions. Next choose to create a primary DOS partition and make it active. If you get prompted for large disk support, choose yes (y). Let Fdisk run without any interuption. When it completes, at the A> prompt type format c: /s and the disk will be reformated and the sytem files transferred to it. You should now be able to see the drive and change to it.

[night_hawk13]

the format C: /s command doesnt work with windows me, and I have tried that, I still get error writing boot.

[2k dummy]

Try the command sys c: . But you really need to run Fdisk.

[night_hawk13]

Ok just so no one asks me anymore questions and perhaps I can get a few more answers, When I boot up my computer from the hard drive it says General error writing to drive C: . When I try to use my recovery disc and use the option restore operating system I get "image error" cannot create partition, all disk space is currently in use. When I try to run fdisk and delete the partitons and create new ones I get error writing fixed disk.

[merlin_2]

Your recovery disks were made for your old drive which had an image on it?what laptop is this?

[night_hawk13]

its a hewlett packard

[merlin_2]

booot disk can be obtained from www.bootdisk.com follow this>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=271673  it may help..but info for you is create an image of your disk? ghost...........>norton...or this>http://www.easydesksoftware.com/recovery.htm#ME  .... all is not lost its only missing...

[night_hawk13]

Yeah the disk uses norton ghost. But when I try to use a boot disk I download the fdisk command wont save the new partition. I use the drive zero from the manufacturer and delete everything off the hard drive to start fresh and when I use fdisk, create the new partition and reboot it doesnt save the partition.

[merlin_2]

try partiton magic  or have a look here>http://www.worldstart.com/tips/shared/rr2.htm

[night_hawk13]

Yeah ok, that link you sent me, iv done that about 10 times. It doesnt work, and it doesnt look like anyone here knows whats wrong so I guess I will have to break down and take it in, thanks anyways guys.

[merlin_2]

more questions i know take out the  hard drive form the laptop and format it on your pc hook it up as a slave drive...if it reconized in the bios of the laptop type this command in at the prompt.........a:\scandisk c: and tell us what happens if this is a brand new hard drive their should not be any partitions on it and its makes no sense that is what you have posted previously?or is this a bad hard drive..

[night_hawk13]

the thing is I dont have the password for the bios, I bought it from someone else. So that kinda sucks. But I will try formating it on my home comp, havnt done that yet. And I have ran scandisc on it, everything comes back normal, as with diagnostics.

[merlin_2]

info for you>http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/reference/biosp.htm and dont give up keep cool after all it will be worth the effort

[night_hawk13]

Ok the backdoor passwords for PheonixBios didnt work, but im pretty sure it reconizes the drive, it comes up with how big the hard drive is and such when using differnt boot disks.

[merlin_2]

try format c: command at the prompt..then  at the prompt fdisk then at the prompt sys c:

[night_hawk13]

ok first step format C:
Heres what I get



Checking existing disk format.
Recording current bad clusters
Complete.
Verifying 37, 879.82M
Format Complete.
Unable to write BOOT.
Format terminated.

[merlin_2]

try this C:\>fdisk /mbr how many f/disk have you used to format this drive try a fresh one as its possible that one of them is badly formated..<more questions and to format a laptop hard drive you will need an ide adapter for a pc my mistake for not mentioning it..is it a Fujitsu drive....why not take it back and get a new<replacement> one it maybe after all this time its faulty..

[night_hawk13]

Actually this is the 3ed hard drive iv echanged for, so im sure its not that, I tried using fdisk off a fresh HD, I used drive zero to erase everything, start fresh, create the partiton, make it active, exit fidisk and I get "cannot save to fixed disk" I am really thinking its a hardware problem, ide cable or something. But it saves the partitions when I use the recovery disk, and it loads the OS. So its saving some info the hard drive.

[merlin_2]

try formating it on someone elses laptop if you no someone that is...or your pc you will need an ide adapter ...try fdisk  and dont partition it leave it whole at fat32 and dont use drive zero and see if there is any improvement..