Reformat problems

[kirilaza]

Alright, so i have had quite some trouble with my computer the past couple of weeks and it all started when I downloaded a free version of comic life. The computer has had trouble starting up; sometimes it will power up and a black screen will come on that says to pick the proper boot device or to insert boot software, other times it will load the OS fine up untill i get to my desktop then itll freeze. So i decided to reformat and i got to the blue reformat page and pressed enter to reformat, but it was taking a long time to load (around 45 mins) this was before you accept the agreement and before the actualy OS begins downloading on your computer, so i thought that it was frozen or something (again, this was after the press enter to install os screen and before the license agreement page). I had the genius idea to restart the computer while it was on that page and now whenever i get to the blue screen that asks me if i want to install windows when i press enter it tells me that it cannot find a hardrive to install windows to and that i have to restart my computer. What am i supposed to do? And is there any way i can fix this? Any help would be super appreciated.

 

[strategic]

Welcome to Techspot!
You need to replace your Harddrive with a new one, the one you are currently using is defective.

 

[kirilaza]

The computer is new though, iv only had it for about 2 month. It only started acting up when i downloaded that comic life program (which i believe had a trojan in it). Could it be that a trojan corrupted my hard drive or something? And would there be any way for me to retrieve the information on my hard drive? Its partitioned into c and d and all of my important files are on my d, so would i be able to get them back?

 

[aqua]

like you say it might be a virus..
if i were you..i wipe the hard drive off,,using dban [3 passes] and then reinstall..
hope this can help.

 

[mailpup]

You probably have a SATA hard drive. If so, you have to get Windows to recognize the SATA hard drive because when you get that message, Windows does not have the necessary SATA drivers to do so. You can enter the BIOS and change the hard drive controller mode to IDE (if the BIOS allows that) or you can hit F6 at the beginning of Windows Setup to load the third party SATA/RAID drivers. You will need a floppy drive for this procedure. If you don't have a floppy, you can create a slipstream CD to bypass the floppy drive. Google for the procedure to make a slipstream CD.

If you will be clean installing Windows on your C drive, your D drive should be unharmed but it wouldn't hurt to put your hard drive in an external enclosure to copy important data. Keep in mind that you should always back up your data on general principles in case of unpredictable hard drive or general PC failure.