Error detected when formatting primary hard disk partition

[kimmie420s]

I have a Dell Dimension 2100 Desktop...Pentium III processor...256-KB.  I've had this PC for a number of years.  Lately I have found it necessary to delete and reformat the hard drive due to loades of unecessary files and stuff over the years.  I have done this twice with no problems....however on the last time I had to do this I received an error message when formatting the primary hard drive.
The error says, "SETUP CANNOT INSTALL WINDOWS ME ON YOUR COMPUTER.  AN ERROR WAS DETECTED WHEN FORMATTING YOUR PRIMARY HARD DISK PARTITION.
My question is...do I need to purchase a new hard drive for the pc or is there something I am doing wrong?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  Thank You in advance!
Kim

[Dusty]

Possibly a non-recoverable hard drive error but you should run the hdd diagnostics program available on the hdd manufacturer's site.

Good luck

[llmeyer1000]

This may be the link you need:
Dell Dimension 2100 Support
It looks like you could have either an IBM or quantum hard drive.
If you click on "Add or Edit Service Tag"(on that web site) and enter the service tag information, it may be able to identify which drive you have.

Otherwise crack the case  and look for the hard drive brand/model to know which software to download.

[kimmie420s]

Thank you for the info.  I have gone to Dell Support and downloaded the hdd.  However since my desktop does not have the Windows Me loaded....I used my laptop to burn it to a disk....to use on the desktop.  You will have to excuse me because I know little about how to do this.  Now that I have the disk...I changed my system to boot to cd rom first.  However, when I restart the system with the disk...it says the diagnostics were loaded successfully but I have no idea how to access it.
Also....one more question....when creating a new partition it asks for volume....I have no idea what I should put here.
Thank you so much for all your info.
Kim