[domyue]

Hi,

My laptop stopped working a few weeks ago and it loaded up to the initial black windows screen (with loading bar) and would indefinitely stay there. I erased the whole drive (wrote zero's on it with seagate tools) and I did a reinstall.

My HD froze and refused to go any further at these points:

1) When I was installing, I did the normal NTFS format - it paused at 5% and didnt progress. Switched off and its exactly the same problem.
2) I did a quick NTFS install and Windows installed and runs ok it seems. I decided to do a Chkdsk on it - it's frozen at 50% for the past few hours.

What do I do and why is it freezing!!???

Thank you so much for helping.

Edited by domyue, 06 February 2008 - 07:31 PM.

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Just to update, the Chkdsk ran for the whole night and its STILL at 50%. When the HD freezes there is no HD activity after a while.

This has happened in just the above 2 situations and not yet happened once windows has fully loaded. Maybe its a bad part of the HD that refuses to be read???

[domyue]

Just to update, the Chkdsk ran for the whole night and its STILL at 50%. When the HD freezes there is no HD activity after a while.

This has happened in just the above 2 situations and not yet happened once windows has fully loaded. Maybe its a bad part of the HD that refuses to be read???

[hfcg]

Hello, and welcome to Geeks To Go.
I would just like to ask for some clarification please.
You tried to install Windows and the installation froze at 5%.
You tried again and the installation was successful.
You ran Checkdisk and the progress has stalled at 50%.
If this is the case your hard drive should be replaced.

[The Skeptic]

Just before you replace the disk try this: Download a DOS version and burn it to a CD, creating a bootable disk. Boot and run fdisk command. Delete the present partitions and create new ones. If you create more then one choose the one on which XP will run and make it Active (this should be c:). Reboot into DOS anf run the following command: format c: and press Enter. This will format the partition to FAT32.

Now Try to install XP, formatting to ntfs in the process.

[domyue]

How likely is that to work?? If its one of those last resort situations with a few percent success it's prob more reliable just to replace the HD isn't it??

Also, I forgot to mention that using the disc supplied with my laptop to reinstall, there were approx 20 files that failed to be written to the disk. So I just pressed Esc to skip the file. However it seems that my windows is running flawlessly thus far!

[The Skeptic]

Yes, it's a last resort option but I succeeded with it a number of times. A lot of the hards disk that are replaced have nothing wrong with them other then a good format. You took the drastic (and correct) action of zeroing the disk but something is not working well (format and chkdsk). Looks to me as if my sugestion is your last option.

Regarding the uninstalled files; there is a good chance that somewhere along the road their absence will show up.

[domyue]

1) What do I put onto disk so it boots up to DOS - you said "download a DOS version"... of what?

2) Also, how do you make something "active" in fdisk? (Sorry never done this before)

Thanks!

[The Skeptic]

Use this link to download DOS 5.0. Burn the folder to a cd. Boot the computer with the new cd, making sure that the cd drive is the first priority boot device.

After bootup, at the prompt, type fdisk. This is a DOS command that opens a menu that enables you to delete the present partitions and recreate them. If you create only one partition you will be asked if you want the partition to become Active. Write Y (for yes) and continue. By doing so you let the computer know that you chose this partition for the installation of the operating system.

After you finished with fdisk you have to reboot (when prompted to do so) and format the disk to the older file systen FAT32 (used by DOS). this is done by typing, at the prompt, format c: and pressing Enter.

It's not a complecated thing. just try to follow the fdisk menu that open up. After this is done you should install XP, formatting to ntfs (the newer file system) when prompted to do so. If your XP installation CD is not damaged and still the installation fails, then you should replace the hard disk.

[domyue]

Thanks very much! I have suspicions about my laptop DVD drive too.

Could a bad drive/lens cause the "files cannot be found" errors during windows installation, due to it not being able to read the disc??

If so, is there a method to test the DVD drive??

[The Skeptic]

It could be the DVD drive or a damaged XP cd. As a matter of fact it could be the result of almost any hardware component which is faulty (ram, motherboard etc.)

Please use the link in my signature to download SandraXII. Install the program. Click on Tools and chose Burn-In Computer. Use the green arrows to move in the menu. When given the option to chose what should be testsed check everything. Choose to run the program 3 times or so. Go forward with the menu and fill (or leave empty) the requested parameters.

Choose to save the report to your desktop.

Run the test and see if there are any failures. That can be quite long. Watch the indicator at the top righthand side to see if it's running.

To test the DVD you must have an empty disk inside the disk (the test reads data and write to the disk, so you don't want to damage a valuable, data loaded CD).

Edited by The Skeptic, 08 February 2008 - 08:19 AM.