pc wont start need help now

[Inky]

ok my second pc is flocked up when it boots it wont read the HDD I try to reinstall XP but when the installer gets to where you choose the HDD it says "can't read from drive" or something like that. I can't get to anykind of command prompt to fdisk the thing. other then removing teh HDD from the pc and putting it in another to fdisk it (Which I don't want to do) I am at a loss. does anyone have any idea how I can format the drive from it's fubar state? I was thinking maybe running dos from a cd but I can't find any info on that. I really need to get this one running as it is the one my kids use and they are getting alot of games for christmas, help me!

[Gryph]

Are you sure the harddrive is plugged in correctly. Sometimes my harddrive power or IDE cable comes loose.

 

I would suggest you take that drive and take it to another computer just to see if it can be read.

[Wizard]

It's fubar, have a proper burial. Or, test it out a few times but changing the jumpers and formatting it on another PC.

[alexis]

this can be many things and believe it or not, it might be what gryph said, just check the cables, in case this does't help, get a linux live cd as they don't require any install and from there format your HD, if after this your disc is useless, you will have to trigger some bucks

[IxI SoNiK IxI]

could try hooking it up to ur current working pc as a slave drive and format it there.. winxp: control panel > admin tools > comp. management > disk management

 

check the connections first is good idea too like what gryph said

[Inky]

well after most of the day I got things going again. ended up getting a dos program called clean.exe (i think it was distributed by dell as it sayed something about dell tech support.) got into a dos prompt by putting a win 98 disk in then booting with cd-rom support. from there I ran clean.exe from a cd and it wiped my HDD.

from there reinstalled 98se bye bye Xp. so far so good.