Sections of the hard drive's magnetic coating are failing. This is usually a progressively degenerative problem that will continue to haunt you. If you can find another drive at a swap meet or flea market, it might be worth the effort to replace it. (but remember that the interface card and drive must match) If not..... You need to low-level format the drive -- unfortunately, there are too many cobwebs in that section of my memory to give you accurate details. There is a location within the BIOS that can be accessed via the DEBUG program and there are several generic freeware/shareware programs that can accomplish this. I would check the manufacturer to see if they have a program. The low-level format will block out the bad sections. Then you can FDISK, FORMAT /S, and reinstall your software. Jim Meagher ===== Micro Solutions Consulting Member of The HTML Writers Guild http://www.ezy.net/~microsol International Webmasters Association 410-543-8996 MS Site Builder Network - Level 2 member ===== -----Original Message----- From: Dreamer's Den <[log in to unmask]> >Now, now, don't laugh too loud. > >I was given an old 286 with a 40 mb Hard Drive. I would like to > The PCBUILD web site always needs good submissions. If you would like to contribute to the website, send any hardware tech tips or hardware reviews to: [log in to unmask]