Win ME format problem

[Big_John]

Hey guys,
My other computer, running Windows Me has got extremely flaky of late and so I have decided to format it, however during the format process it gets to 3% and freezes. It does this after restarting as well (i've tried it 5 times now to no avail)

Any ideas on what the problem could be?

Cheers

John

[Big_John]

Just tried again and only got as far as 2% this time...

John

[GaryRouth]

For a first step in troubleshooting, I'd download the disk diagnostics from the website of the manufacture of your hard disk. [DataLifeGuard for Western Digitals, SeaTools for Seagates, Powermax for Maxtors, etc. . . ] The download will create a bootable floppy from which you can boot the pc and run the diagnostics (most use a form of DR-DOS or Free-DOS) - write-protect and virus-scan the floppy, just to be sure.

Some of these disk tools can zero-write the drive, which Completely! erases all data. Sometimes drives that have become problematic have a miracle death-bed recovery using a zero-write (but unfortunately = not often). You probably don't want to do this if your machine has hidden or proprietary partitions placed there by a major OEM vendor (Compaq, Dell, etc) --- and if this Is a box from a major vendor, you may want to try the Recovery disk set - it's at least an option, if the drive turns out to be mechanically OK

My first guess would be that the drive itself might be going bad . . . [any unusual noises coming from the drive?]
. . . Gary

[p.s. --- welcome to the Pc Mechanic forums! ]

[p.s. #2 --- if the drive tests out OK, you could also try the install with a different cd-drive. You could test the system memory too, with DocMemory http://www.simmtester.com]

[Big_John]

Hi Gary,
Thanks for the reply - there is no unusual noises. I left the format on over night and when I woke up this morning it had only completed 9% so it's formatting albeit slowly....thats only 9% in a 12 hour period....

Cheers

John

[glc]

Sounds like a dying hard drive to me, you really need to run diagnostics.