Software Or Hardware Problem? Can't Reformat

[VB-]

hey guys, trying to fix a friends comp, as it was having serious issues. it would start to boot, then bring up the options of 'start in safe mode' etc, safe mode being the only one that actually worked, but once windows loaded, it just crashed and restarted anyway.

note - all drives are IDE**** didnt look for sata ports, cbf pulling out my sata HDD anyway.

so, tried to put another HDD in her comp as a master, as to retrieve all her data, couldnt find the HDD, so i puller her HDD out, put it in my comp, worked fine as a slave drive.

tried to then reformat her computer. no dice. on the very first boot screen, and in BIOS, it can see the HDD, but if i try to reformat, windows tells me it cant find it. i've tried with XP, and that happens, i then tried with a legit copy of windows vista. it went though 'loading files', once thats complete, it goes to that screen with 'microsoft corp' and the scrolling loading bar, then it crashes, and it all starts again.

i tried to put my spare HDD in there and straight reformat, no dice

wtf is going on???

cheers,

Ben

[Skyrin3]

Motherboard

[VB-]

yeah thats what i was thinking....

other options? dodgy IDE cable?

Edited May 7, 2009 by VB-

[R31Nismoid]

Have you updated the motherboard to the latest BIOS and then done a full CMOS reset?

[phoenix17]

Is this after you reach the boot up stage and at the installation/partition process? Are the boot priority set correctly in the BIOS? I had a problem where it would skip the boot sequence and go straight to loading the current OS .

[VB-]

nismoid, havent updated, not 100% sure how. have gone into bios and 'set optimize defaults' if this is what you mean by reset? or do you mean where you pull the jumper off and move it across then turn it on again?

phoenix17, no i set the boot priority right, it starts to load the cd and begin the install prgoress, it gets to that screen where it says, press enter to install windows or F3 to quit, or R to repair. whether i press R or ENTER, it immeadiately says 'cannt find the HDD'

[R31Nismoid]

find out what BIOS version its using, then go to the manufacturers website and check its the latest for that board revision.

Thats usually the first place to start, then once you've flashed it, then return it to standard (via the defaults, only once you do the bios) and then see.

The BIOS could be corrupt and so on. Friend of mine recently had problems with his CPU not showing correctly due to the BIOS being corrupt, and this was on a $400 mobo

[Gazzilla]

definantly motherboard is fuxored.. I just had this problem recently. BIOS is rarely known to get corrupted.