Disk Part has encountered an error: the parameter is incorrect

Hi, I recently acquired a new computer that's fairly old but I tried reinstalling windows on it with all of these errors regarding the hard drive being unable to be read with an error code. After several hours of trouble shooting I went to the Windows x32 bit command prompt tool on the disc, typed in "diskpart" and entered the following commands:

list disk

select disk 0

clean

create partition primary

select partition 1

format fs=ntfs (have also tried fs=ntfs quick)

In which the formatting process stops at 8 percent, waits for a while and then gives me the "Disk Part has encountered an error" message. I've tried using seagate, msdos from a flash drive to attempt diagnostics but none of them have been able to even read it. Does that me the HDD is totally destroyed? It's a SATA I do believe. Please ask for any information I've left out.

Specs:

Dell Dimension E520
4 GB Ram
Integrated Graphics (intel something or another)
Dual Core Processor (3.0 Ghz)

So I found this forum post while having the same problem and was alarmed at the prospect of needing a new hard drive.

Don't worry- it may not be your hard drive.

I was able to try to install windows on my 2nd hard drive and it *also* failed - giving the same error message about parameter incorrect.

In my case the error was hard to find. My installer kept referring me to a log file that I couldn't figure out how to access. And then I had my stroke of genius.

After using diskpart to format my disk over and over I finally decided to format volume. You can list and select volumes the same as you do disks.

After formatting the volume I wanted to install windows to, I made sure it had the drive letter "c" assigned to it. After assigning the letter,when I tried to install to that volume, it game me an error code. 0x80300001

This code refers to installation media being the problem.

In my case, I am installing using a usb stick. A usb 3.0 stick in a usb 3.0 plug that requires drivers to work properly. Drivers that I couldn't install during setup.

After moving the stick to a usb 2.0 plug windows installed properly.

I am still perplexed as to how I was able to load the setup utility but not install windows using the 3.0 plug but since my windows is installed and working properly I decided to stop my investigation.