9 replies to this topic

[george 476]

I tried to remove SP 3 from win xp. powen went off. removal failed. Black screen. Tried recovery, that failed.
Now have to format H.D. but no screen. H.D. is maxtor 31536H2. Need self extracting self starting format program. Anybody know of anything like this. Thankyou George ~email removed to avoid spamming~

[krit86lr]

Is the power light on your monitor showing that it is on?

Also, have you already gotten all of your personal files off of the hard drive?

[Keithuk]

Welcome to Piriform George.

george 476, on Dec 21 2008, 07:33 PM, said:

I tried to remove SP 3 from win xp. powen went off. removal failed. Black screen. Tried recovery, that failed.
Now have to format H.D. but no screen. H.D. is maxtor 31536H2. Need self extracting self starting format program. Anybody know of anything like this. Thankyou George

Well a web search brings up a Maxtor 31536H2 drive as 15.3GB. Don't you think thats a bit small for WinXP? The cost of drive today is quite cheep so you might be better off buying a newer larger one. The only problem you have doing this is if its an old computer then the BIOS might not recognise large drives. You really need a friends that is local so you can check monitor to make sure it shows something. If push comes to shove you can always swap hard drives while you format it.

I have 2 Maxtor drives 20GB and 40GB. Maxtor do a program called Max Blast 3 which makes a bootable floppy that you can startup and check drive size, partitioning, format drives. Thats providing you have a floppy drive, I think you would have because it sounds an old machine like mine.

Google Max Blast 3.

[george 476]

krit86lr, on Dec 21 2008, 02:12 PM, said:

Is the power light on your monitor showing that it is on?

Also, have you already gotten all of your personal files off of the hard drive?

krit86lr: monitor works fine. No personal files.

[george 476]

Keithuk, on Dec 21 2008, 04:03 PM, said:

Welcome to Piriform George.



Well a web search brings up a Maxtor 31536H2 drive as 15.3GB. Don't you think thats a bit small for WinXP? The cost of drive today is quite cheep so you might be better off buying a newer larger one. The only problem you have doing this is if its an old computer then the BIOS might not recognise large drives. You really need a friends that is local so you can check monitor to make sure it shows something. If push comes to shove you can always swap hard drives while you format it.

I have 2 Maxtor drives 20GB and 40GB. Maxtor do a program called Max Blast 3 which makes a bootable floppy that you can startup and check drive size, partitioning, format drives. Thats providing you have a floppy drive, I think you would have because it sounds an old machine like mine.

Google Max Blast 3.

keithuk: No floppy drive. Disk size is ok for what it used for. Will see if max blast 3 will boot to a dvd.

[george 476]

krit86lr: monitor works fine. no personal files.



keithuk: no floppy disk. size of HD ok. Cant us max blast 3 to many bad things on disk need to format

[Keithuk]

george 476, on Dec 21 2008, 11:11 PM, said:

keithuk: no floppy disk. size of HD ok. Cant us max blast 3 to many bad things on disk need to format

Buy a floppy drive George, I've bought one of eBay on Friday only because mine is a beige one, £7.60 with P&P. Plus you may need the cable if you've never had a floppy. Then with a good boot disk you can Fdisk and Format the drive as well has put your partitions in. But with a drive that size its not worth partitioning.

I forgot to mension I wouldn't advise you putting your email address in here unless you want loads of spam George.

[Humpty]

What am I missing here?

Can't you boot from the XP install CD and format the drive that way?

[Keithuk]

Maybe so Humpty but we still haven't sorted why he has no screen. If nothing shows at all on the screen then its either the screen or graphics card. He says he's checked the monitor and that ok.

[Humpty]

Booting from an XP install cd uses generic drivers so if nothing shows it may to be the graphics card or a static buildup.

With the power cord unplugged from the psu press and hold the power button for around 30 seconds then replug the power and see if it will boot.

If the mobo has onboard vid then plug the monitor there or try another video card.