Reformat failure?

i've formated my pc before, so i know the usual steps and etc.. but this time im stuck.. after deleting the old partition, i created a new one, and tried to reformat it.. however i notice something different.. when it starts to reformat, it gets stuck at 0% forever.. what is the problem? the cd or the hard disk? how do i comfirm? i deleted the old partition and now i cant boot up my pc.. =(

BennyLCB, What is the make and model of your computer or is it custom made?

Try running DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe). It will wipe the hard drive completely so it will appear as totally unformatted (RAW). See if you can then create a partition, format it and install XP. Should only be necessary to wipe the first 5% or so of the disk but you can let it do the whole disk if you like.

Also, if you suspect a hard drive problem, you can download the drive manufacturers utility program from their web site, create a bootable CD from it and run it to test the drive.

there is also kill disk here. killdisk will wipe the entire disk, including bad sectors. you can download a .iso image to burn to cd (bootable cd). There's also a free floppy download as well.

if that doesn't work. as was already mentioned, you could check the manufacturer's site. for example, if your drive is a westerDigital, you can go here, with your drive's information on-hand, and download their dataLifeGuard software which will help you to format the drive to get it up and running.

If you want to run some tests on your drive, there is a program that Hitachi offers (works on most drive's regardless of manufacturer) here. this will run diagnostics and give you information that should enable you to further diagnose the issue at hand.

Is the drive making any physical/mechanical sounds that seem out of the ordinary? clicking, hissing, coughing, wheezing?

has it recently developed an affinity for watching oprah?

hmm.. i guess u can say there's a hissing sound.. another question, if i wanna change the hard disk, and im using and IDE type.. can i change it with a SATA type? coz i know the connectors are different.. is there any additional items i can buy to change the connector?

and can i use the Hitachi program to test the hard disk if its already formated (RAW)? do i insert the disk when booting up the pc?

If you have IDE, you need to replace it with IDE, unless your system board supports SATA. Yes, the Hitachi utility doesn't care if it's formatted or not.