[kevinski]

I'm in the process of reformatting my cousin's computer. I used GWSCAN to write zeroes to the hard drive, used fdisk to set up the primary DOS partition, and reformatted the drive. It took many attempts before it would allow me to format the drive, however, as typing FORMAT C: at the prompt would merely return a "Cannot format a network drive." error message. It eventually allowed me to format the drive, however.

Unfortunately, upon booting from the Windows XP Setup CD to format the drive to NTFS and install Windows, I've been unable to continue. When I try to format the drive to NTFS, it simply states that the format cannot be completed. And when I try to install Windows on the already established FAT32 partition, it tells me that the disk is corrupted.

I don't belieive the hard drive has gone bad, however. I recently purchased a router, networked his computer and mine through the router (to share cable Internet service), and made sure everything was up and running. I tried to update his Norton AntiVirus definitions and such, and one of the installations failed. It still told me to reboot, so I did. The computer wouldn't reboot, so - after receiving permission to do so - I began reformatting the computer. After all, there were far too many unneeded things on the disk, and he didn't have anything he actually needed to keep on it.

I don't understand why I'm having such difficulties in reinstalling Windows. And, like I said, I don't believe the hard drive is corrupted. Reason being, I tried to format my hard drive without wiping it, and I got the same "Cannot format a netword drive." error. Is that due to the fact that my installation of Windows is still in-tact, or would I get that error message upon trying to reformat after wiping the hard drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kevinski]

Not Possible

Unfortunately, it doesn't allow me to make partitions from the Windows Setup CD. I've tried creating the partition, but it simply returns to the main menu, asking me to either install Windows or create a partition. I could get another Windows installer disc from a friend or something, since it could be a problem with my disc. I'll see what happens. Now, if this doesn't work, though, what could be wrong with the drive?

 

[kevinski]

The Computer

Gateway Professional M800
800 MHz Pentium III Processor and Motherboard
320 MB SDRAM
FUJ 20GB IDE 5M U100 Hard Drive

 

[kevinski]

Not Sure

How would I check to see if it's using a controller or not?

 

[kevinski]

No controller.

The hard drive is directly connected to the motherboard. Sorry about the slow reply, by the way.

 

[kevinski]

???

Okay, so I should put his hard drive into my computer and format it that way? First off, will this cause any sort of problem due to my hard drive having a controller? Also, if I put his hard drive into my computer and format it, should I still go through the exact same process as before? I mean, will I need to format it as another drive letter or something? I'm unfamiliar with working with two hard drives.