How long should it take 2 format a partician??

bingo_bango

If going for a new one, worth looking at Maplin. I got a white label 320Gb internal IDE (ATA/PATA) for £49.99 (LINKY)

When I opened the box, it was a Maxtor. 5 minute install, and it's fine.

BritBrat

Go to the manuafactures site and you should be able to download formating tools.

Then try and do a low level format.

They will also have tools to check the drive for errors.

You could also try and format it in DOS.

If it was me I would start with Fdisk and remove all partitions.

Then remake one partition for the whole drive.

Then format the partition.

All done in DOS

Then if it is seen in XP I would reformat it again to NTFS this time in windows.

michellen34

Thats it, Fdisk!! It's been that long since i've done one i couldn't remember what it was called or how to do it! How do i do that again? I've got the pc up and running (do you think its worth starting over using fdisk?) Its still a little slow to boot but much better than the 20 odd minutes that it has been lately. Trouble I'm having now is, How to set up a network? Its wired and thats all i know basically, going to have a bash though.

Considery he has such a small hard drive whats the best security to get (until i get him a new drive) i was thinking avast, sygate firewall, and Ccleaner, do you think thats enough?

Thanks xx

BritBrat

XP has fdisk well sort of it's now called diskpart.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

G47

Yes that security you mentioned should be fine