Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - Dell Latitude LSt

Dave Stevens · 08-20-2007, 08:37 AM

Cn anyone help me with this - I have just aquired an old Dell Latitude LSt with most of it's bits but not working very well. Takes about 5 hours to load Windows ME then its everso slow 30 sec to 5 mins to do anything. I tried using restore but there were no restore files. I've tried MSCONFIG to close own everything but it is still so slow as to be unusable. Safe mode would boot but again very slow. The Dell Utilities runs ok in DOS and shows everything to be working. Tried to reload ME but it stopped halfway through after 24 hours of trying. The C: drive was visible and could be read using DOS from the statrt-up CD. I tried to reformat the hard drive but it stopped at 8% completed with the message 8 percent completed, Not ready, Format terminated. After a couple of attempts with the same result I tried FDSK to delete and repartition the drive - this seemed to work OK but I still cannot format the drive - same message as before but I now can't see or access the C: drive. Has anyone got any ideas or advice.

I have contemplated replacing the hard drivefor a bigger one (its 6Gb) abut as its a DELL the drive connector is non-standard and I dont think it's worth spending money on the machine as it is only destined to go to my Grandson

Any help woul be greatly appreciated

08-20-2007, 08:37 AM	#1 (permalink)
Dave Stevens Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 2 OS: windows me	Dell Latitude LSt - cannot format HDD Cn anyone help me with this - I have just aquired an old Dell Latitude LSt with most of it's bits but not working very well. Takes about 5 hours to load Windows ME then its everso slow 30 sec to 5 mins to do anything. I tried using restore but there were no restore files. I've tried MSCONFIG to close own everything but it is still so slow as to be unusable. Safe mode would boot but again very slow. The Dell Utilities runs ok in DOS and shows everything to be working. Tried to reload ME but it stopped halfway through after 24 hours of trying. The C: drive was visible and could be read using DOS from the statrt-up CD. I tried to reformat the hard drive but it stopped at 8% completed with the message 8 percent completed, Not ready, Format terminated. After a couple of attempts with the same result I tried FDSK to delete and repartition the drive - this seemed to work OK but I still cannot format the drive - same message as before but I now can't see or access the C: drive. Has anyone got any ideas or advice. I have contemplated replacing the hard drivefor a bigger one (its 6Gb) abut as its a DELL the drive connector is non-standard and I dont think it's worth spending money on the machine as it is only destined to go to my Grandson Any help woul be greatly appreciated