Slow boot and disk errors? XP

[Agmeusic Bits]

I did a new install of XP home. I told it to format the partition that XP
was currently on and reinstall there.

It took forever to complete the format (More than 4 hours). Does anyone know
what would make the format take so long.

The machine is a Dell Dimension 4400.

Now XP takes a long time to boot. It takes a long time to get to the login
screen, sometimes shows a black screen with a bar at the bottom of the
screen counting up. (What is that?

Then it takes a long time after login screen. I've tried a Diagnostic Boot,
I think, but it is slow right from the time I turn it on.

I viewed the Event system log and it had some curious entries.

1 - the device, \Device\IDE\IDEPORT0, did not respond within the timeout
period. (Saw this one a few times in a row)

2 - about 1.5 hrs after the first...
The driver has detected that the Harddisk0\DR0 has predicted that it will
fail....no errors since

What should I do?.
Could this explain why windows is so slow to start?
Should I get a util from the drive manufacturer?
Should I have formatted the entire drive first and not just the partition?

Thanks
Agy

Any Ideas?

 

[Rich Barry]

To answer your questions Yes, Yes and It doesnt matter.