Tony, If you are trying to format it, then it's saying files are missing from the CDROM drive or floppy drive, it's not reading the bad data from the hard drive. This usually happens when any "format disk" or "installation disk" is bad, be it either a floppy, or CD media....or of course could be a bad floppy drive (or CDROM drive if you're booting from it). If you are using a floppy; get a new floppy disk that has not been sitting by your monitor, motor, magnetic field, etc, and format it, then place the manufacturer's format utility on it, (or the windows SU disk files). If you are booting and formatting from the CDROM drive, the media (i.e. windows CD) could be scratched in a vital area, so try the floppy drive method.
When you see "missing files and can't format the drive" and this is happening AFTER the initial format attempt (like after the format has almost been completed), then in this case is could be the HD. If after all this you suspect the HD, then the best thing to do is go to the HD manufacturer's website to download the LLF utility (and also the diagnostics floppy). You do NOT want to use the old DOS method since it will not give you any diagnostic code like the manufacturer's LLF utility will. These codes will not only tell you what is possibly wrong (if anything) with the drive, but you also must have it in order to return a HD to the manufacturer for replacement (if it's still in warranty). You should also try the simple scandisk.exe in DOS (LONG version) and see if it can find any HD problems. This method can usually find and fix typical HD errors, and map any bad sectors of the disk so they will not be used. -Clint God Bless Us All Clint Hamilton, Owner http://OrpheusComputing.com � ----- Original Message ----- From: "Electronics" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> sometimes when I try to format a hard drive I get a message of missing files and cant format the drive, the system still runs fine but I cant do a clean install,is there some way to completely wipe the hard drive ? like a low level format? I've heard of that but dont know. any help greatly appreciated. -Tony Electronics Inc ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
