hard drive problem. Zero-ing out?

[Taccun]

I've recently been having quite a bit of trouble installing windows 7 on a fresh hard drive. I wanted to do a clean win7 install so I deleted all my partitions and began installing on the single unalocated (sp) space. I went away and came back and noticed it in chkdsk and this went on for hours. I let it finish and I have still been unsucsful installing. I used the samsung software to test it and it seems my hard drive over the course of partitioning has developed some bad sectors. (It worked perfectly before doing this) it now does a *click* about every few seconds when doing hard drive intensive things like a chkdsk. I read that zero-ing out the drive could help delete these bad partitions (albeit deleting the memory that had bad sectors)

So, I'm trying to figure out the best way about doing. At first I just tried partitioning around the bad sectors in the windows install screen but I didn't really know how to effectively do this. So I just created a 12GB partition for the win7 install and left the rest unalloacted space. but this didn't work, naturally. So I'm wanting to try zeroing out the harddrive to see if this will remove the bad sectors. Any help would be great. Also, is there a more complicated way of partitioning that I could effectively partition around these bad sectors? Once again I'd like to clarify that my hard disk had NO problems before doing this fresh install.

 

[whs]

1. Run a chkdsk /r - not just a plain chkdsk

2. Define a partition of at least 25GB - 12GB is too small for the OS

3. Then install into that partition. Should work.

 

[scrooge]

if the drive is clicking i think thats the first sign the drive dying.
scrooge

 

[Taccun]

1. Run a chkdsk /r - not just a plain chkdsk

2. Define a partition of at least 25GB - 12GB is too small for the OS

3. Then install into that partition. Should work.

How do I run a chkdsk /r? I have no OS and my win7 install doesn't have a repair options to open up a command promt. My vista disk has one but chkdsk /r didn't do anything.

 

[Taccun]

if the drive is clicking i think thats the first sign the drive dying.
scrooge

It only did start to click when it did that first chkdsk. And I have a feeling that once I get the OS installed, it would actually work. That's why I'm trying to fix these bad sectors.

 

[whs]

You can run the chkdsk from any command prompt of any istallation/repair disk - even a Vista one. But if you already ran chkdsk /r on this disk, no need to run it again.

 

[Taccun]

You can run the chkdsk from any command prompt of any istallation/repair disk - even a Vista one. But if you already ran chkdsk /r on this disk, no need to run it again.

No, I mean I typed "chkdsk /r" into the command prompt and it doesn't start any test, it basically says the command doesn't work. I'll have to try it again to see exactly what it says.

 

[Taccun]

now it's telling me "bootmgr is missing"

 

[whs]

Well, you have to first define a partition. If you run this sequence of commands, it should work:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given to the disk in question)
Clean
Create partition primary size=xxx (where xxx is the total number of MBs of the disk)
assign letter=M
Exit

Then you can run:

Chkdsk M: /r (note the blank in front of the slash)

 

[Taccun]

Well, you have to first define a partition. If you run this sequence of commands, it should work:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given to the disk in question)
Clean
Create partition primary size=xxx (where xxx is the total number of MBs of the disk)
assign letter=M
Exit

Then you can run:

Chkdsk M: /r

Do I run that in command prompt? Is it all at once? Should I not partition in the windows disk? Also, what about that bootmgr error?

 

[whs]

Each command is run individually in command prompt followed by Enter. You will create 1 partition on the disk covering the whole disk.

You could create several partitions, but that will complicate matters. We can always delete that partition once the chkdsk is done and define a smaller partition leaving the rest unallocated.

The bootmgr message you probably got because you were trying to boot from that disk.

 

[Layback Bear]

If it was my computer and the hard drive was making noise I would backup what I wanted to save and install a new disk. As far as I know their is no program going to fix a mechanical problem.

 

[Taccun]

So I'm still confused. Am I partitioning from the command promt rather than the install step? And I thought I was supposed to partition a 25gb partition for windows7 and have 2 ?

 

[Taccun]

If it was my computer and the hard drive was making noise I would backup what I wanted to save and install a new disk. As far as I know their is no program going to fix a mechanical problem.

I already have it all backed up since I was doing a fresh install. And like I said it just started this during this fresh install. I don't really have enough money for a new hard disk..

 

[whs]

If it was my computer and the hard drive was making noise I would backup what I wanted to save and install a new disk. As far as I know their is no program going to fix a mechanical problem.

Good point. But the OP is not sure or convinced whether that is a mechanical problem. The disk seems to be new.

PS: It is midnight. I will be off. Will be back tomorrow.

 

[Taccun]

If it was my computer and the hard drive was making noise I would backup what I wanted to save and install a new disk. As far as I know their is no program going to fix a mechanical problem.

Good point. But the OP is not sure or convinced whether that is a mechanical problem. The disk seems to be new.

PS: It is midnight. I will be off. Will be back tomorrow.

Can you answer my other question first? I'll be left out in a river if you leave now..

 

[Taccun]

Okay, the vista disk for some reason won't boot. It works fine on other computers and has worked on this one just recently. The windows 7 disk boots but gets stuck at "Setup is Starting". Not sure what I should do...I was never told a suggestion to zero out the harddrive.

 

[scrooge]

not sure if its going to help you but try this link.

How to Fix Bad Sectors on a Hard Disk | eHow.com


scrooge

 

[scrooge]

The windows 7 disk boots but gets stuck at "Setup is Starting"..

how long is it hanging for before you stop it?
have you tryed letting it run to see if it starts installing?

scrooge

 

[Taccun]

The windows 7 disk boots but gets stuck at "Setup is Starting"..

how long is it hanging for before you stop it?
have you tryed letting it run to see if it starts installing?

scrooge

I'm still letting it run. It seems to do that click periodically. It's never done this before.