From: "Christopher Gagné"
Clipped:
>The question: how do I go about formatting the hard drive now?

As I read this, you are saying you want to distroy ALL the data,
OS and partitions on the drive.
If that is correct, try to find some utility that will do a write test of
the drive that also recertifies it...
You want the type what warns toy you will loose everything.
(The DISTRUCTIVE type of testing version of the program.)
Seagate has them, and I'm sure Maxtor does too...

You could use the IBM Wipe or Zap utilities IF you were sure
the drive surface was good.

Any of this will clean it up logically, and also (optionally) tell you
the surface is in good condition...  I always like to start this way
if I have any doubt about a drive, or if it is giving trouble, or has
EVER reported "bad sections".
They will be hidden in a re-certification,
but better to hide them now than try to use them later...
(If you use a SMART reporting program on the drive, you can
get a good idea what has been hidden in the past......)

After the drive is "squeaky clean", try to boot from the OS install
CD and hopefully things will go differently... If not, write back to
the list as I seldom see HP computers, but your problem with
the HD I see lots...

                                                    Rick Glazier

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