Hi,

I am very troubled with my laptop and my wife's laptop. (my laptop' problem will be uploaded at another post)

I was trying to format my wife's laptop comuter, Toshiba tecra, with system CD of Microsoft Windows XP professonal with servic pack2.

First, I tried to fix the laptop using repair option but it did not work... there was some errors I can not remember right now. Then I decided to format the com with the CD, but there was also some errors as follows.(actually I tried several options such as quick format, format, and I also deleted c:(there was instruction about 'L' to delete any partition))

the error message is,

Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged.

Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to your computer. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult your compurter manual or SCSI adapter documentation for more information.


How can I solve this problem?

thanks in advance

the drive may be dead or dying
Download the latest diagnostic software and utilities from the manufacturer of your hard drive
run the tool for your particular hard drive from the link here...
if you don't know what brand of hard drive is in the computer look it up on the computer manufactures website...

This post has been edited by happyrock: Dec 13 2008, 07:14 PM

so, how to use the diagnostic tool... actually I can not download the tool in the problematic laptop(the laptop does not work, I can only do a new setup with system CD. I reply this with my laptop which has no problem. The problematic laptop is my wife's.

download the tool to the working computer...burn the cd on the working computer...
put the cd in the non working computer and boot it up....

Hello,
I'm also experiencing the same problem on my desktop while trying to reinstall xp. I download the program you suggested above for my hitachi disk drive. I tried to open the file to burn it to a cd and i get an error message "Device Drive error! Cannot create target diskette."
prior to this it tells me to select a drive (drive A being the only option). I didn't even know i had a drive A. Do i actually need to use a floppy disk/drive for this to work?

Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
CMM

Direct to: chuckmills

Please start your own topic
Although your issue may seem similar there can be other factors that may need to be resolved.
By bumping on someone's topic it makes it confusing for the tech to understand who they are helping. This can in turn cause the wrong support to be given and can cause instability or worse to happen to your system.
Thank you for your cooperation.