Restoring Hard Drive

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Is there a way of restoring my hard drive to it's factory default state &
then from there proceeding to install an OS onto it. Basically trying to
start fresh.
 
manu08 said:
Is there a way of restoring my hard drive to it's factory default
state & then from there proceeding to install an OS onto it. Basically
trying to start fresh.
Click to expand...

Certainly. But since you haven't told us anything about your particular
computer, we can't give you specific advice. If this is an OEM machine
(Compaq, HP, Dell, etc.) look at the manual you got when you bought the
computer, or on the OEM's website for instructions.

If this is a home-built or generic computer:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install

How to ask a good question in a newsgroup:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

Malke
 
manu08 said:
Is there a way of restoring my hard drive to it's factory default state &
then from there proceeding to install an OS onto it. Basically trying to
start fresh.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? Clear the hard drive platters to its
factory-fresh, pristine condition? Sure, there are apps
that can be downloaded from the HD's manufacturer for
this purpose.
 
Yes, GHalleck that is precisely what I want, I have a Seagate Hard Drive &
was unable to find any application to do this, if you do know any please let
me know but they cannot be ones requiring an OS as this hard disk does not
have any OS on it, it's, well, corrupted & that is what im trying to fix here.

Malke, I have an Alienware computer & with the computer I received a Windows
XP Home Edition CD however what you specified in the repsonse is not what I
am looking for.
 
If you boot with the XP Home Edition CD and follow the instructions for a
new installation, overwriting the old installation this will strip all
things, bad and good, from the hard drive. It will not fix corrupted
hardware however.

If you are attempting to "low level format" the drive this is not
recommended by a hard drive manufacturer. However read here about Seagate's
take on it. http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html
 
manu08 said:
Yes, GHalleck that is precisely what I want, I have a Seagate Hard Drive &
was unable to find any application to do this, if you do know any please let
me know but they cannot be ones requiring an OS as this hard disk does not
have any OS on it, it's, well, corrupted & that is what im trying to fix here.
Click to expand...

Seagate does not provide a low-level formatting kit from its
website, probably meaning that it does not recommend this way
for wiping its hard drives clean. Normal high-level formatting
would then complete the cleaning and re-mark bad clusters and
other physical defects on the hard drive. But these are known
as "destructive" cleaning, that removes everything on the drive.

Gibson Research, http://www.grc.com/, offers Spinrite. It is
supposed to be a non-destructive process.

But looking at the original, earlier post, this hard drive may
already be beyond repair. There are "soft" crashes and there are
the real physical hard drive crashes. This could be in the latter
since Windows "setup was unable to format the partition."
 
Actually I wouldn't quite sit on your last comment there. I downloaded the
Seagate Discwizard which I found out about from another forum
(http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/use_dwse.html) & well booted up
using it & set up my disc from it & Windows XP got installed successfully.
Very strange the chain of events that have happened. Yes, of course the first
thing after the installation that I did was run a check on the hard disk for
errors. Currently it is going on & it passed the first 4 tests without any
failure & stage 5 has done 73% without any problem yet. Anyway if you know
any, better maybe more reliable softwares to check the stability & condition
of my hard disk, please let me know about them ASAP.

Thanks a lot for the help.
 
Spinrite "was" mentioned!

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
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