help me figure out why I cant reformat! pleeeease :)

[4thgenlude]

Ive got 2 HD's, one is a 1TB I just bought and the other is my old 160Gb.

For some reason I wanted to 3 partitions on my 160Gb so I could run multiple OS's (Vista, Xp and Ubuntu). And then just leave the 1Tb Hd to hold all my files and everything.

I deleted my old partition on the 160Gb, but now I cant reformat with either XP or Vista. I have legit copies of each.

I can load from the disk and everything goes smoothly while it is downloading the OS. But after it restarts for the first time it says it cant load from the disk.

Any idea as to what I should check or try?

 

[Atomic Rooster]

You need to setup the partitions before installing the OS.

Look for this screen duing the install setup:

There you can set the sizes of the partitions you want. Then you can install the OS on one of them.

 

[4thgenlude]

You need to setup the partitions before installing the OS.

Look for this screen duing the install setup:

There you can set the sizes of the partitions you want. Then you can install the OS on one of them.

yeah, I managed to partition the Hd and even start to install the OS, but after it restarts it says "Disk Boot Failure, Insert system disk and press Enter"

But the disk is already in the disk drive.

The same exact thing happens when I am trying to install XP and Vista. Which is really weird because when I first put the OS disk in, it boots from the disk just fine. Its only after it has started to install the OS that the problem arises.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Odd. Usually when it reastarts for the first time after the install, it boots directly to the hard drive and not the CDROM. Do you have the boot order set correctly with the 160GB as the first or even the second device in line behind the CDROM?

 

[4thgenlude]

Odd. Usually when it reastarts for the first time after the install, it boots directly to the hard drive and not the CDROM. Do you have the boot order set correctly with the 160GB as the first or even the second device in line behind the CDROM?

I'm not sure. Should I hit F8 when its starting up and see if I cant get it to load up from the 160Gb?

 

[setishock]

NVM Just thinking out loud.

 

[4thgenlude]

So I just took the disk out and tried loading from the 160Gb, and it still said the same thing.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

See what happens if you disconnect the 1TB drive.

 

[setishock]

If it's doing it on both OS the common connection is the drive. If it has jumpers make sure they are set correctly.
Next I would get the reformatting software from the maker of the drive and run the recertify program. It takes a good while to do what all it does. But time well spent. If you have some bad sectors or clusters it will flag them as bad and an OS install will go around them.
It sounds like to me the boot sector on the drive is bad.

 

[4thgenlude]

I just disconnected the 1Tb and then started it back up. And now it loaded from the disk but its starting the OS installation all over again.

Im going to let it run through and see if it works this time.

If it's doing it on both OS the common connection is the drive. If it has jumpers make sure they are set correctly.
Next I would get the reformatting software from the maker of the drive and run the recertify program. It takes a good while to do what all it does. But time well spent. If you have some bad sectors or clusters it will flag them as bad and an OS install will go around them.
It sounds like to me the boot sector on the drive is bad.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking something with the disk drive might be off.

I was thinking about taking the disk drive from my brothers computer and seeing if that worked.

Well after disconnecting the 1Tb the XP installation so far has gone further than it did before. So hopefully ill be able to completely install the OS on the 160Gb and then reinstall my 1Tb/