HELP! Hard Drive problems

[Ox Of Knox]

Ok. Ive struggled for 3 days and now I need the help of my fellow locks...
Long Story short... My windows folders were corrupted to the point that not even safemode would boot it and the XP install/repair is completely unaccessible.
*Sigh* I need to format my harddrive, but I cannot figure out how to do so without starting windows... and I CANT seem to get anything to cooperate.
What I need is some sort of bootable CD to format my drive. All attempts at 'tech web sites' were met with a "WHAT A JERK! SOUNDS MALICIOUS" etc... All I want is my baby to get better!
Any advice/tips/suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!

Oh. Windows XP, not vista.

(All I want to do is grind out that last level for my flyer )

[AndTatties]

bad news mate :(
you will need a bootcd but you will not be able to create one without your pc being able to boot up.
i would ask your local pc shop if they have a bootcd will only cost £2-3 or if you have a usb pen drive create a boot drive from that at work pc or internet cafe ect( poss even their cd burner ), crap advice but hope it points into the right direction

[Nathan1234]

If you use Windows XP, simply boot off of the XP CD. You will have an option to format your drive, if that's what you really want to do.

[zoli]

Exactly! All you need is a Win Xp install CD, it will boot right away and you can delete/create/format any partition on any hard drive connected to your PC.

[thorlock]

You shouldn't have to reformat, and don't unless you have exhausted all other options. Boot off the Xp CD, then chose the repair option. That should fix 99% of the problems.

There are other options. How did this happen anyway? That might open up some other options.

Good luck.

[Ox Of Knox]

I think I have exhausted all other options... booting from the XP CD brings me no luck... and the repair only brings up a dos console that doesnt seem to follow to normal rules of dos... so Ive given up. Ive ordered a new harddrive. I;ll start from scratch, then see if I can plug in the old HD and figure out things from there

[zoli]

I say try this:

Boot from the XP install CD, delete partition C (or whatever your system partition is), then create it again. After recreation of partition, format it (NTFS ofc, quick/long don't matter) and install XP on it. I think this should work just fine.
If this doesn't work, it can only mean 2 things: 1. the cd is no good, get another one 2. less likely, the hard drive is physically damaged. In this case you need to buy another HD, but I doubt that this is the case here. Do you hear funny sounds comming from your HD? Like little snapping sounds?

[nurapi]

... and the repair only brings up a dos console that doesnt seem to follow to normal rules of dos...

try chkdsk /r at that prompt

[Ox Of Knox]

"The Volume appears tp contain one or more unrecoverable problems"

That aint good...

[Swoop]

Originally Posted by Ox Of Knox

booting from the XP CD brings me no luck... and the repair only brings up a dos console that doesnt seem to follow to normal rules of dos...

You're booting into the recovery console. If you don't know how to use it, then unfortunately it's not going to help you much. Personally, if your system is this stuffed, I wouldn't trust a "fix", I'd reformat and start again.

Instead of booting into the recovery console, (e.g. pressing "R") simply continue with a normal installation. (follow the prompts to do this, I can't remember them exactly off the top of my head) I think it's a case of pressing <enter> to continue with the installation. It will then scan the system and possibly say that it's found an existing installation, do you want to try to repair it. Say no to this, and then, as one other poster said, delete the existing partition and then re-add it (NTFS of course, never use FAT32 if it's offered) and re-install XP on that.