[dba-Tech] Format hard drive and start over

Hi John,

SpinRite is running on level 4 - smooth as silk until it reached 
cylinder 4,141, head 252.  Here it is laboriously climbing through 
sectors - up to sector 41 as I am typing this message. 

Perhaps the thing to do is just replace the hard drive.  It is a Western 
Digital 60GB drive, identified in Setup as: WD600BB-75CAA0.

I can boot to Windows (it's XP, not XP Pro) and do lots of stuff, but 
there's a good chance if I let it sit for a few hours, it will suddenly 
not find the hard drive.  Frequently, there is a boot message that the 
hard drive is operating outside of normal specs, strike F1 to continue 
or F2 for Setup.  Sometimes in that situation, Setup does not see the 
hard drive, sometimes it does.  Usually F1 continues the boot sequence, 
although occasionally it stops again, this time with a "no keyboard" 
message. 

What kinds of hard drives do you have lying around, and why are you 
willing to part with one?  For how much?

Thanks so much for your response and help.

T

John Bartow wrote:
> Hi Tina,
> Run SpinRite and have do a check of the entire hard drive. Doesn't pay to go
> through installing the OS from scratch if the hard drive is bad. I have a
> ton of hard drives laying around here if you need a different one let me
> know.
>
> If you have a Product Key number (on the MS sticker) on the case of the
> computer you can use a disk with the same product to install Windows from
> scratch. Then you won't need to worry about formatting or anything as it
> will be an option in the installation procedure. If installing XP and it has
> less than SP2 then download SP2 and SP3 on you main PC. Install those SPs
> from a USB stick as soon as Windows install is done. If you need drivers for
> the PC you can download them from the manufacturer's web support site and
> install them from a USB stick too. XP, SP2 and SP3 will take some time to
> install so don't bother watching them once started :o)
>
> Also don't bother installing any additional apps (including security) until
> done with all of this.
>
> Good Luck Tina!
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tina Norris
> Fields
> Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 7:06 PM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: [dba-Tech] Format hard drive and start over
>
> Hi,
>
> Please hold my hand while I do this for the first time.  I've been given 
> a used Win XP machine, with a 60GB hard drive that is failing.  I would 
> like to reformat this hard drive and reinstall the operating system and 
> see if I can get some good out of the machine - for teaching kids and 
> others, and for playing around; this is not a production machine for 
> me.  Before I dive into this for the first time, I would like a little 
> guidance.  Okay?  I'm listening.
>
> Thanks,
> T
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