I tried booting my computer a few days ago (HP Pavillion a1730n w/Windows Vista), but got an error that said "BOOT FAILURE". I hit enter and it just says "err2 err3" and it just hangs there. So I tried using the windows vista repair disk, but it would find any operating system. While using the repair disk, I searched for the hard drive (C:\)I was trying to boot from and clicked on it. It said "You need to format this drive before you can use it". To try to fix this, I tried to run a disk check, but I got a message saying that windows cannot access the disk. How am I supposed to fix this without having to format the hard drive and start all over again?
"You need to format this drive before you can use it" error. HELP!!!
- Thread starter Jake22
- Start date
Did you bootrec /rebuildbcd at this point?
This drive is recoverable. Just run a chkdsk against it on the other machine.
After you plug it in and get the Format Disk option, take note of the drive letter it assigned (e.g. "disk in drive x:") and click Cancel.
Press (keyboard) Windows Key + R
Type cmd and press enter
Now type: chkdsk x: /f
Where x equals the drive letter as shown in the Popup.
This will perform a 'check disk with fix' against it to hopefully make it accessible again. Good luck
After you plug it in and get the Format Disk option, take note of the drive letter it assigned (e.g. "disk in drive x:") and click Cancel.
Press (keyboard) Windows Key + R
Type cmd and press enter
Now type: chkdsk x: /f
Where x equals the drive letter as shown in the Popup.
This will perform a 'check disk with fix' against it to hopefully make it accessible again. Good luck
You could rebuild BCD (boot configuration data) under Windows Repair. I suspect your BCD is corrupted. See this guide [pcsupport.about.com] for steps to do so.
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