Endless Paradigm

I've tried using Fdisk, but it either locks up or stops working when i try to create a primary partition, delete a primary partition, or display partitions.

I've tried using a Windows 2000 and 98 disk to try and format the drive, both experienced problems. Windows 2000 said the disk may be damaged or unformatable.

I can't even load the OS, something happened to it, and it won't boot up.

It was running edubuntu. It is a laptop. Approx. 6GB drive.

And this time, i did some extensive research, and no one i found seems to be having the same problems i am.  

I have access to a DVD-RW drive and an external drive with about 120 GB.

idk what to do and any progress in a forward direction would be greatly appreciated

hirens bootcd


use that

I'll give it a try. I'll report back later of success or failure

umm... maybe the drive IS damaged or failing?

Whot's the name of the hard-drive!? (brand)

my dad was having the same problem but it only affected all his portable drives. it seems the data was being corrupted somehow because the only way to format them on my machine (his machine couldnt do it) was to kill the partition in windows disk management console and then using partition magic and my old win98 boot disk to format the thing. after that all was well but he didnt want them so i got a couple of free drives for the trouble. :)

Senseito Sakura Wrote:umm... maybe the drive IS damaged or failing?

probably, or maybe a dodgy cable? i had something like this happen. it turned out to be the IDE cable that was messing thins up

k, so far, the few partition programs i used on the hirens boot cd said "bad mbr"

I have no idea what that means, but I'll keep trying with some more of the programs on the cd

Senseito Sakura Wrote:umm... maybe the drive IS damaged or failing?

i just used one of the tools that checks the hard drive for physical problems, it came up negative (none found)

crazy-asian Wrote:k, so far, the few partition programs i used on the hirens boot cd said "bad mbr"

I have no idea what that means, but I'll keep trying with some more of the programs on the cd

then you'll need a Windows Installation disk, go to the Recovery Console and use the 'fixmbr' command.

Thing is, you use GRUB, so you might want to look into a more topical solution.

i got it working!! I used the super Fdisk to format my disk, and now i can install Win 98.

Thanks again squee