Sloooooow HD format

After getting tired of my machine bogging down and slow boot up times, I decided to re-format my (25 GB) HD and start over.

I re-formatted, stuck in the WXP Home CD, and started the install process. I chose the FAT32 partition and after 1-1/2 hours, the partition is at 25% complete.

I plan to purchase a new HD and trash this one, but I am wondering what could cause things to be so slow ?

I will let the partitioning continue overnight to see if it finishes. Is there some testing I can run to determine what the problem is - maybe a fix? Perhaps I could use the drive as a data storage unit ?

PC info: 700 Mhz PIII with 128 RAM.

 

99% of the time this is indicative of a drive failure. Stop this current process. Just shut it down. With a Win 98 startup disk let’s make sure. First from the “A” prompt type “fdisk <space> /MBR” [w/out the “”] This will erase the master boot record. Then still with the 98 startup disk, from the “Fdisk” prompt type “Format c:” of course no “”. If it does the same thing time for a new drive. If not let it format, create your partitions with LBA enabled and install XP. FYI I do partitions 60/40 just seems to work out well. You ever took a drive apart? They are neat…