Friend's Hard-drive formatted

M

Maccer0

Active Member
My friend decided to format his hard-drive for some reason because it was "running slow" when he could have just done a plain virus scan, and I installed him 2 sticks of RAM the day after he decided to do this.

Our sata-controller on the bios is on SATA 1+2 mode, so both the hard-drive and dvd-drive would work. But here's the problems:

  • Ubuntu fails to load because of multiple hard-drive checking errors.
  • Ubuntu live cd fails to load for the same reason
  • G-parted Live! fails to detect any drives, and loads slowly
  • Vista cd detects hard-drives and requires drivers, which none are available to install with .inf's only .exe's and an .iso. (It's good to mention that there's some "BOOT" X:\ drive created"
  • Vista repair doesn't work because no hard-drive's detected.
I tried to let the computer do a normal boot, and I see that the Windows Boot-Loader (NTLDR) is still installed.
I believe that the .boot is interfering or the main hard-drive partition table has been corrupt. Is there away I could format/remove a partion or remove the boot using a software method?

PS: Raid mode is disabled. I just need to format the drive completely, or at least be able to install something.
PPS: It's interesting to note that my USB is detected as a samsung(just like the hard-drive), when it's in SATA-1+2 mode.
 
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Maccer0

Boot from Vista DVD -> Repiar my computer -> Next -> Command Prompt:

diskpart
select disk 0
clean
exit

Click the little x in the upper right hand corner of the recovery options window. Now click the "Install Now" link and install Windows.
 
kairozamorro said:
Maccer0

Boot from Vista DVD -> Repiar my computer -> Next -> Command Prompt:

diskpart
select disk 0
clean
exit

Click the little x in the upper right hand corner of the recovery options window. Now click the "Install Now" link and install Windows.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the quick response, I'll try it once I download the recovery cd (this cd is really scratched.) I'm going to possibly get another vista cd, my friend took very bad care of this cd.

Is there some other media I can write an iso to? His CD driver is really slow. It limps when it reads CD's.

Addendum:

Update. I decided to go into the recovery disk's cmd, and I decided to type in "list disk" and I found that disk 0 (the main one) has 140GB, but the problem is that, when you list it's volume's, you can't find the hard-drive, only the cd, which totals up to 120MB. I can't format, or repair it.

Cleaning the disk did not help as NTLDR is still there.
 
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Maccer0 said:
Is there some other media I can write an iso to? His CD driver is really slow. It limps when it reads CD's.
Click to expand...
I believe if you know what you are doing, you could maybe transfer the recovery cd files to a UFD, and boot it, but that option is pretty extreme for someone who does not know what they are doing...:wink:
Addendum:

Update. I decided to go into the recovery disk's cmd, and I decided to type in "list disk" and I found that disk 0 (the main one) has 140GB, but the problem is that, when you list it's volume's, you can't find the hard-drive, only the cd, which totals up to 120MB. I can't format, or repair it.
Click to expand...
Try
Code: 
list [B]partition[/B]
instead.

But you need to select disk 0 with
Code: 
select disk 0
before you can clean it.
 
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Heads up, you'll need an actual vista dvd for re-installation of Windows. Our recovery disc is only good for the recovery section. The clean command I gave you should wipe out the disk's partition table, which is why you would not get any partitions listed with list part.
 
kairozamorro said:
Heads up, you'll need an actual vista dvd for re-installation of Windows. Our recovery disc is only good for the recovery section. The clean command I gave you should wipe out the disk's partition table, which is why you would not get any partitions listed with list part.
Click to expand...
We already have it, only it's dell's version.

But either way, no software detects my partition/hard-drive. Not even vista, it's asking for the drivers, ubuntu won't detect it either or it gets errors. G-parted live fails to detect it too.

Dell's version is the same, only it's basic.

Addendum:

Just to update, my friend told me, he just "deleted" vista, he didn't format.
 
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SO from the description, if the clean command did not remove everything on the disk (just wiped the mbr), then you will need to use a 3rd party formatting tool. I would recommend creating a free UBCD4Win CD, and use tools found on there to completely start over from scratch...i.e. by completely wiping the hard drive with DriveErase, using MbrFix or MbrWiz to create a new MBR, using Gparted to repartition your disk, and using Boot Build to create a new bootsector. If you don't want to do all that work, then just buy a new hard drive. :wink: Not much else for you in terms of options...

EDIT: Just noticed your edit...
Could you get him to describe more clearly what exactly he did from the Vista DVD...i.e. how exactly he managed to delete the OS files?
 
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Coolname007 said:
SO from the description, if the clean command did not remove everything on the disk (just wiped the mbr), then you will need to use a 3rd party formatting tool. I would recommend creating a free UBCD4Win CD, and use tools found on there to completely start over from scratch...i.e. by completely wiping the hard drive with DriveErase, using MbrFix or MbrWiz to create a new MBR, using Gparted to repartition your disk, and using Boot Build to create a new bootsector. If you don't want to do all that work, then just buy a new hard drive. :wink: Not much else for you in terms of options...

EDIT: Just noticed your edit...
Could you get him to describe more clearly what exactly he did from the Vista DVD...i.e. how exactly he managed to delete the OS files?
Click to expand...
He just said he used the uninstall windows feature in the Windows Vista installation cd.
 
There never has (and probably never will be) an uninstall OS option. Your friend probably either deleted the partition, reformatted it, or deleted all files on the partition.

Anyway, a cleaning of the hard drive + fresh install of Windows should fix things. Your dell Vista dvd should be fine for this purpose, but if its scratched up really bad you'll need a replacement.
 
kairozamorro said:
There never has (and probably never will be) an uninstall OS option. Your friend probably either deleted the partition, reformatted it, or deleted all files on the partition.

Anyway, a cleaning of the hard drive + fresh install of Windows should fix things. Your dell Vista dvd should be fine for this purpose, but if its scratched up really bad you'll need a replacement.
Click to expand...
No his CD player is just horrible, he could upgrade that too. And again, cleaning of the hard-drive cannot be done. diskpart can view the disk, but it can't detect any volumes.
I tried cleaning it, no change came out of it.

If Vista can't detect it because of driver's, how am I supposed to retrieve the setup driver's (.inf)'s?

Also in BOOT X:\, it contains some vista files, but I have no idea what it is. Probably an attempt from re-installing?
 
Ok, you need to find a Vista disc other than the recovery disc you've downloaded here and use that to install a fresh copy of Windows.
 
kairozamorro said:
Ok, you need to find a Vista disc other than the recovery disc you've downloaded here and use that to install a fresh copy of Windows.
Click to expand...
I already have the vista disc, the problem is, it won't detect any hard-drive's from the gui, you can find the disk, but not the proper volume. It's asking for driver's.
 
Maccer0 said:
I already have the vista disc, the problem is, it won't detect any hard-drive's from the gui, you can find the disk, but not the proper volume. It's asking for driver's.
Click to expand...

Does any unallocated space show from the Vista DVD setup? If so, then you tell Vista to install there, and it will automatically create a new partition out of the free space.

Otherwise, follow my other advice, and get yourself a UBCD4Win CD, which will allow you to perform any repairs necessary to get the thing working again.
 
Maccer0 said:
What exactly am I supposed to do with UBCD4Win? It just gives me an installer.
Click to expand...

Simple. :smile: You use the installer to install UBCD4Win's files to a directory you specify, and then you use UBCD4Win PE Builder (found in the directory you installed the files to) to create a UBCD4Win build, and if everything goes ok, also an ISO, which you then burn to a CD with ImgBurn, and you will have a UBCD4Win CD which you can then use to repair the problem. :brows:

See here for detailed instructions on how to build (note that you will need a Windows XP CD to create the build from).

Here are their support forums if you have a problem with the build:

UBCD4Win Forums (Powered by Invision Power Board)
 
I use ISOBURN a lot, but it has problems detecting all of my free space and sectors on my CD. Can you recommend another one?
 
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