Question about Hard Drive Format

Hello, New to this place but I thought I could get some help. So about two days ago, I tried installing some software which turned out to be malicious software by mistake. It crashed my computer and when I tried starting the computer up, it said that my HAL.dll file was corrupt or missing and would not boot up. So then I tried to take my Windows XP CD and format the C drive(hard drive) by booting from the CD. I even used the thorough super long reformatting option. Two days later, I come to my computer and it says that my hard drive is damaged and that the C: drive can not be formatted. So i try to delete the partition using the menu in the Windows XP CD. I succeed in deleting the partition, but I am still unable to format the C drive as it says my drive is damaged. Now when I try to start up my computer, it won't start and will state that there is an error in the Operating system(which is because I deleted the partition). Is there a single way to format the C: drive? Because this issue is driving me nuts. Thanks in advance.

boot from the CD again and run: [never-mind, you can't, windows is not installed anymore….] take the hard drive out and put in another tower and open a "command prompt" [start—run—"cmd" press [enter] ] and run: CHKDSK /R see if it finds any additional "bad" sectors. Hopefully it won't run out of replacement sectors [had that happen to a cust recently.] then attempt to "partition" and "format" it….though it shouldn't take anywhere near two-days to complete ! 1-6hrs depending on it's size. Tallon41

I tried that but it says "The Volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems." what's that mean? I'm going to try to partition and format it again. EDIT: No luck, said that volume was damaged or something.

I tried that but it says "The Volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."

what's that mean? I'm going to try to partition and format it again.

It means that you' re not going to like the answer….not one little bit. Which is exactly what you're going to get from it…..sorry.

EDIT: No luck, said that volume was damaged or something.

yeah, I've never got a disk to be "useable" if CHKDSK gives-up on it. I've "recovered" data from such drives, [if they spin properly,] but never was able to put one back into service…..sorry the news is not better.

Tallon41

Had you run chkdsk at the first sign of error ( or simply copied hal.dll from the cd to C:\Windows\System32) you definitely would have been much better off. However, all is not completely lost just yet…(that meaning your harddrive… the odds on getting any data back are slim and 0) A very good 3rd party app called SpinRite can and will save your drive. Granted, its a slow process and will most likely take a day or two… if you wantto save your drive.. thats the way I suggest you go. (alternatively, if you got a floppy drive, you can try booting from a Windows 98 startup disk and running FDISK . Or simply format the entire drive from the command line.. thats just about as powerful of a format as you will get unless you use a 3rd party application)

Had you run chkdsk at the first sign of error ( or simply copied hal.dll from the cd to C:\Windows\System32) you definitely would have been much better off.

unlikly given the follow-up results. Step one is back-up if you have not done so lately, (obviously have to connect to another PC to do that as it is not bootable.) Then run the CHKDSK /R command, or whatever other disk repair tool you preferr. The reason is because that command, (and those like it,) exercise the snot out of the drive….and I have personally seen it kill dozens of drives by pushing them past the edge of whatever problem they were having.

If you drive *IS* about ready to die, you will want to get as much of your data off of the disk, as you can first. There is a small chance, that a CHKDSK failing at 50% [or whatever percent] of the way through a Pass will help you get your PC bootable again, it depends on just what kind of problem it is having. Additionally, there is also a small chance that running CHKDSK will make things worse, and if it does, then things will be MUCH worse for the User data-wise.

Tallon41