Jeldim

I am experiencing a problem while reformatting my HP Pavilion dv6500 that I've had in the past. Right now, what is happening is this:

1. I use KillDisk utility to clear the hard drive (an HP support-person suggested this when I've had this problem in the past).
2. I use the recovery disks and driver/application supplement disk, after which the computer restarts.
3. At this point, I SHOULD be taken to the the computer registration/setup then to the desktop of my squeaky clean computer. Instead, one of two things happens:

a. I reach a black screen with a cursor icon.. but nothing else. The cursor seems functional and moves about the screen, but it never moves past this point. Or,
b. The computer goes straight to the desktop of the administrator's account (since it hasn't taken me through setup to create a different profile). At this point, the computer goes through a seemingly infinite cycle of "installing software" and restarting. I've had it go for 8 hours in the past, so it doesn't seem right.

If I ever try to manually restart the computer, it takes me to a prompt to open windows normally or use safe mode. I use safe mode, and I get a prompt which says the OS installation did not complete (which doesn't surprise me) and I start the process all over again.

This has happened in the past and what usually happens is I cycle through this process about 5 times or so and eventually it inexplicably starts working (the planets have finally aligned properly?). I would like to be able to reformat my computer with this NOT happening.

Does this sound familiar to anybody? Would just going out and buying a new hard drive make this stop happening (I've been in the market for a bigger one anyways, and if it stopped this problem it would just make the deal that much sweeter)? Or could it be something else?

Madcatz

sounds like it could be one of two things, or both.

one it could be a bad set of recovery cd's. HP may just send you new ones to try.
second, it could be a bad hard drive. you could download a hardware diagnostic program using another computer, but it to a cd and boot your PC from the cd rom drive. Drive fitness test is a nice program, or each hard drive manufacturer makes thier own diag program also,

Jeldim

The first time this happened HP sent me a new set of recovery disks, so at this time I am cycling between them until one of them works (using KillDisk to clear out any remaining files between OS reinstallations, of course). I figured chances were slim that BOTH of them were bad, but I guess anything is possible.

I'll try to burn a copy of Drive Fitness using the computer I'm using now, but since its not mine I'd have to double-check to see if it even has a burner in it. Here's hoping. But if the recovery disks aren't the problems, could I just replace the hard drive without testing it and assume good results (since that would be the only suspect in my computer issues)? Maybe its not NECESSARY to go out and replace it, but if its almost certain that the hard drive is the problem, I might take the opportunity to replace it for a larger one anyways since I was in the market for extra space anyways.

Thanks.

TriggerFinger

Try DBAN in formatting the drive. Also if it continues to hang, run Memtest to test your RAM. D/load links are on my sig.