[nic777]

Ok, i'm currently on a Dell C610 Laptop 1.2g processer 768 Ram. I have lots of problems.
1.This hard drive cant be fresh installed it wont allow to be formatted ran Hard Drive regens etc it just wont and to get it back AFTER you TRY its a 5-10 hour job.
Sooo no fresh installs
ok anyways,
1.It's in FAT32 and XP Pro O.S.
2.It has a Dirty bit that seems impossible to get rid of
3.I dont know the order in which to change to ntfs or get rid of dirty bit. NOTE i did something bad before it happened durring changing fat to ntfs blue screen of death then had to clone the drive and repair (only way to get os on here)
4.The Bios Says it's a Dell C500 or C510----its a C610
5.Whenever i go trying to install a game or cleaner or program, i usually get the error "Windows is corupt in bla bla bla please back up your data imediatly. <--Chkdsk probaly but i got dirty bit who knows.
6.It's got a partition that i can't get rid of and i dont understand fdisk at all
7.mysterious 6gb on the primary partition i go to the drive check all the sizes of files they dont add to 6 gb..HIDDEN FILES ARE SHOWN
Please help me out here, i've googled all of them and no dice...Can't really get a new hd either..its just got some bad bits.
No rush really just wana get this thing working and reliable for vacation Thanks ahead of time,
~Nic - excuse me for spelling errors.

Edited by nic777, 19 July 2007 - 10:57 AM.

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If you want to reformat and you backed-up your data go for low-level-format. This process will zero all the bits on the hard disk. Download Seatools for Dos from this link and create a bootable cd. Make cd drive first boot priority in the BIOS and run the program.

When finished try to reinatall xp. in the process format the disk to NTFS.

[The Skeptic]

If you want to reformat and you backed-up your data go for low-level-format. This process will zero all the bits on the hard disk. Download Seatools for Dos from this link and create a bootable cd. Make cd drive first boot priority in the BIOS and run the program.

When finished try to reinatall xp. in the process format the disk to NTFS.

[Codeman0013]

Kind of sounds to me like you have some malware playing a game on you. Do you or have you installed and ran any cleaners like ccleaner, adaware, spybot and a an antivirus program? We have a lot of those here at work we regen them all the time with xp no problems.

[wannabe1]

Hi Nic777...

Say Hi to your dad for me.

Let's see if we can convert the drive to NTFS and see if it clears the dirty bit in the process. Click Start, then Run, type cmd and click "Ok". In the command session window, type convert c: /fs:ntfs and press Enter. This is assuming it's the C: drive you want to convert. Type exit and press Enter to close the command session if necessary. Reboot...chkdsk will run and then the conversion will begin...this will take a few minutes.

Once it completes and you are back in Windows, open a command session (cmd) and type fsutil dirty query c: and press Enter. Does the drive still report itself as "dirty"? Type exit and press Enter to close the command session.

wannabe1

[nic777]

Yeah i've got plenty of cleaners and scanners..more then you about 10-20 sometimes..im always getting new ones..anyways thanks for comming wannabe im gona try that right now i dont know how long it's gonna take but ill post back with luck last time i tried it really screwed up the hd but i dont know if i used that same cmd line. be back later
~Nic

[nic777]

i did the cmd then it asked me to dismount i did yes then on reboot i said yes then drive volume label (i put the name of the c: drive...DRV1_something) then restarted it ran chkdsk for like 2 mins and it went to desktop i didnt notice lol but i checked for the type..still fat32.

[wannabe1]

I wonder if the HDD is on it's way out. Open a command session (cmd) and type fsutil dirty query c: and press Enter. Does the drive still report itself as "dirty"? Type exit and press Enter to close the command session.

If it is, we'll try to clear the dirty bit and see if it will convert.

[nic777]

yep she's dirty :|

[wannabe1]

Please check the following before proceeding:

• If you have Spyware Doctor installed, uninstall it.
• If you have ZoneAlarm installed, open it, click the "Overview" tab, then select "Preferences", and UNcheck the "Protect ZA Client" check box.

Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the prompt in the Command window, type the following commands, pressing "Enter" after each one:

• chkntfs /d ..... (This will reset autocheck options to default...will come back invalid on some installations)
• chkntfs /c c: ..... (This will allow checking the specified drive )
• chkntfs /x c: ..... (The x switch tells Windows to NOT check the specified drive on the next boot)

At this point, restart your computer, it will not do a chkdsk and will boot directly to Windows.

This next step is important as this is where the Dirty Bit will be unset.

Click Start, then Run, type cmd in the Open box and click "Ok". At the command prompt, type the following, pressing "Enter" after each one:

• chkdsk /f /r c: ..... (To manually run a full chkdsk operation on the specified drive)
• Y ..... (To accept having it run on the next boot)
• exit ... (To close the command session)

Reboot

This should take you through 5 stages of the scan and will unset the Dirty Bit. Be patient...this is a very thorough check and will take quite a while.

Finally, when the chkdsk operation has completed, type fsutil dirty query c:, press "Enter", and Windows will confirm that the Dirty Bit is not set on that drive.

[wannabe1]

Wait nic...we can't do this...not on a fat32 file system.

Do you have a floppy drive on that rig?

[nic777]

i can get one...why? From my dad he has one

Edited by nic777, 19 July 2007 - 06:03 PM.

[nic777]

ok got the drive and making a clean disk...ready for instructions, suppers ready though ill do what you say when i get back

[wannabe1]

Download the attached file and save it to your desktop. Right click on it and choose "Extract All". Once extracted, double click on the .exe and put a clean, formatted floppy diskette in the floppy drive. Once you have this created, reboot the machine with the floppy in the drive. This is an application you can use to easily do a low level format on the HDD. Once it has completed, remove this diskette and insert your Windows XP cd and boot to it...format the drive to NTFS (do not use the quick format option) and install Windows. If your HDD is healthy, this should eliminate your problems...large and small.

Hang on to this floppy disk...I will be removing the attached file once you have downloaded it and successfully created the boot disk.

 plogic.zip   646.66KB   96 downloads

[nic777]

I don't know...i tried that floppy thing and i chose to format the C: drive and have it as "none" as the system type NTFS Wasn't an option. So i pop in my xp pro disk and i go to the setup and format NTFS, you said NOT to do the "Quick Format" so i did normal that always give me trouble either burning hard drives or not installing, but i let it go come back 40 mins later and it's at 10% that's too scary for me so i restarted...what to do now?? try again...I think i killed the HD now.

[nic777]

Ok, i just went to the setup again and saw a option "Convert to NTFS" i did that, seems sucessful..but i got not OS now , Shall i install without formating, install with quick format NTFS, or install with long format NTFS? AHH man it's 12:00 here..better get going to bed..I saw you were on the thread/posting so i waited 10 mins i see no response...if your there answer..i'll be back tomorrow Thanks for all the help so far as you know your my favored G2G member Later

Edited by nic777, 19 July 2007 - 10:52 PM.