How to Reformat Harddrive? Help please!

Message

Misty · #1 Post by **Misty** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:47 am

Hello,
My AlienWare got a million viruses, trojans, malwares, etc that made the computer impossible to use- very slow, browser hijacking and popups, virus scan program files became infected, etc, so I decided to just reformat it because none of my virus scanners could remove the trojans.

When I tried to reformat it through the windows XP setup cd it could not do it because of the viruses- got a blue screen error and then shuts down. So I downloaded the ultimate boot cd and erased the hard drive, through Kill Disk, I think. I tried to partition and reformat it in FAT32 through Ranish, but when I try to leave Ranish it says there is no active partition even though I keep making them, have tried deleting them and then remaking them and reformatting in fat32. When I try to install Windows it is not recognizing the harddrive, nor is the BIOS.

Is there a different way to reformat it through UBCD without Ranish? Also, Ranish doesnt support NTFS formatting, and I have a 200 gig harddrive and have read that NTFS is more efficient on large volumes than FAT32, so I was wondering if I could do this with UBCD?

I'm a 19 year old girl and not especially computer savvy so if someone could explain to me how to reformat the harddrive in easily understandable terms I'd really appreciate it! Please help, I'm going through computer withdrawal =(

Constance · #2 Post by **Constance** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:54 am

Well, once you deleted the partition, there should be no problem to create new ones and install from the Windows CD.
It's bootable too.

Misty · #3 Post by **Misty** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 4:42 pm

Tried it already.... windows is not recognizing the harddrive. wont work.

baronvonfoxbat7734 · #4 Post by **baronvonfoxbat7734** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:20 pm

Don't try to format it with the utility that you were using. Basically use a wipe program to clear the drive with one pass. This will remove the file table and all files on the HD. Then after it has ben cleared, then use the XP install disk to create a partition and format it with NTFS. This should do the trick for you.

Misty · #5 Post by **Misty** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:08 pm

Again, it wont work. Windows XP setup does not recognize the wiped out harddrive.

Constance · #6 Post by **Constance** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:46 pm

Seems normal if the BIOS itself doesn't ... did you modify anything in the BIOS Setup ? ^^

Misty · #7 Post by **Misty** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:34 am

no.

can anyone please tell me how to get the harddrive to work?

baronvonfoxbat7734 · #8 Post by **baronvonfoxbat7734** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:46 pm

ok... Calm down. We are not mind readers to start with. We are trying to help.

Please answer these questions to help us help you.

Does your BIOS see the Hard Drive as the proper size?

When you boot up with your XP CD, does it see your Hard Drive?

When you use the utilities on the UBCD disk, do any of them see the disk?

What utilities have you used in trying to "fix" your drive?

Misty · #9 Post by **Misty** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:13 am

I answered all of these questions in my first post.

baronvonfoxbat7734 · #10 Post by **baronvonfoxbat7734** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 3:06 pm

My apologies then... I did not read your entire first post as it was not concise. Being in Desktop support, I have unfortunately trained myslef to glean important info without reading it all. Most of the time this works fine.

As your BIOS does not infact see the drive, then I would have to say that your drive is no more. The only other option would be to ensure that the drive is truely enabled in your BIOS. If after that then there is nothing else you can do but put it in another machine to see if that computer sees it or not. If the second computer does not see it, then the drive is truely dead. If it is seen in the second one, then your PC is at fault and the board more than likely has gone bad.

Side note... You caould have answered the questions and then stated kindly that they are in the first post. May I suggest you peruse this site for proper question etiquet.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

Misty · #11 Post by **Misty** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:06 pm

May I suggest you read a dictionary and learn how to spell "etiquette" properly.

baronvonfoxbat7734 · #12 Post by **baronvonfoxbat7734** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:43 am

Smart ass child... Good day to you. I will no longer attempt to try to help you as you are now on your own unless someone else steps in.

I even sank down and did something i rarely do and apologized to you. You greet my humbling before you with a slap to my face pointing out my obvious spelling error. I don't know why I even bother... Good bye.