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reformat error on my new xps, pls help!

post #1 of 16
9/30/05 at 12:31am
Thread Starter 
I have reformatted my new xps but i forgot to delete a partition. So i reformatted again with quick reformat, and i found that on the boot screen I have two options to choose from, both Windows MCE. So i decided to reformat again, this time with the regular reformat (booting from the windows MCE CD), and after the reformat and reboot, it says my windows is corrupted..I tried to boot from the CD in order to reformat again, and it says: "the file ql1240.sys is corrupted. Press any key to continue". What do I do???
any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
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post #2 of 16
9/30/05 at 12:37am
Thread Starter 
now i cant even boot from the Windows MCE dvd..:-(
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post #3 of 16
9/30/05 at 12:41am
I have no idea why it won't boot from the CD. Is it selected as the first boot drive in the BIOS? I'm no expert but I would suggest booting from the windows CD. Delete the partition and start from scratch.
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post #4 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:00am
Is the disc dirty or scratched?
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post #5 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:02am
Three things come to mind:
1. Your CD is damaged and can't be read.
2. Your CD reader is damaged and can't read.
3. A bad stick of memory can cause this as well.

Things you can try to narrow it down:
1. Try booting from the same CD on another Dell computer. I don't think the BIOS locking is model-selective, it just has to be a Dell.
2. Get memtest on a floppy and test it out. If this is a memory problem, it's severe enough that memtest will find it pretty fast.
3. If you can get your hands on another bootable CD, any type, and that doesn't work in this unit either, then your CD drive is bad.
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post #6 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:31am
Thread Starter 
i have installed Windows from the DVD for the first time no problems..Then i decided to reformat again, deleting the extra partition that i didnt need...Now I deleted all the partitions and created a new one, I am formatting that one right now...my main concern is that after the format and reboot, I do the first part of the windows install, then when it reboots and asks if i want to boot from the cd again and i decide not to ( since thats what is required to keep going with the install) i get two operating system options to choose from, Windows Pro and Windows MCE. Now if i choose Pro, it tells me that the file is corrupt, and if i choose MCE, it just says something about some failure and reboot....
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post #7 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:38am
Thread Starter 
i cannot reformat! It says that the disk may be damaged!! I think when i tried to format in DOS, after I typed Y when it asked me, it asked me if i wanted to do smtg. with the hard drive that i chose yes to, i think that was the problem...Any thoughts??
anything would be much appreciated!
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post #8 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:41am
I don't know if this works on the notebooks, but there's a hard drive diagnostic built into all Dell desktops. During BIOS startup, press CTRL-ALT-D (letter D, not delete).

If you have a Dell Resource CD or Diagnostics and Utilities CD, boot to that and run the hard disk diagnostics from there.

DOS can't format an NTFS drive anyway. If the worst thing that happens when you run it from CD is that it shows two OSes to boot from, don't worry about that. That's an easy fix once Windows is up.
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post #9 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:43am
Thread Starter 
am i going to be able to fix any hard drive problems if the diagnostics prove you right?
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post #10 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:45am
Any errors turned up by those diagnostics will be hard errors and you'll need a new drive. Hopefully it's not that bad.
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post #11 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:47am
Thread Starter 
okay, now I reformatted the new partition and after it, it said that the disk was damaged. Afterwards, i tried the quick format, and it took me straight to windows install. It rebooted, and now it is installing drivers in the windows install..Im praying that it will work..Cross your fingers for me pls..
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post #12 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:48am
Thread Starter 
thanks for your concern andevian...ill send u some rep points..
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post #13 of 16
9/30/05 at 1:56am
You're welcome, but run a full disk check on that ASAP. The difference between a quick format and a regular format is that the regular format checks the drive for errors.
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post #14 of 16
9/30/05 at 2:09am
Thread Starter 
so youre saying that i still can have HDD problems after installing windows? what can happen? reboots?
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post #15 of 16
9/30/05 at 2:21am
If your hard drive has a real problem, then nothing you do is going to fix it. You'll need to call Dell and have them ship you a new one.
It's hard to predict what all can happen, because it depends on the type of problem your drive has. It could be a few bad sectors that Windows will identify and avoid, and then really nothing will happen to you as long as it doesn't develop more bad sectors. Some of your system files could be damaged so that you can't boot anymore.
You could get blue screens that cause reboots.
Your system could start stuttering.
You could get random data loss.

I'd check it out now. If the resource/diags-utils CD doesn't find any problems, then don't worry. If they do find problems, get it replaced quickly. Dell is really good about replacing drives when their diagnostics find problems.
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post #16 of 16
10/1/05 at 2:53am
hey erexkiss! saw your post in my tweak guide thread, came as soon as I saw it, but it looks like Andevian is already on top of this

Basically, the regular reformat actually deletes everything on the drive and formats it before it install windows, the quick format can only be used on a new, bare drive that has no data and just needs a file system to be put on it. That said, it seems like you did the reformat, partitioned your data (yes?), you need to create a partition of your entire hard drive with the NT file system (NTFS). After that, you install the first windows drivers in the blue screen, reboot, the advanced GUI comes up, finishes the install, then you can finally get into windows. I would recommend taht as soon as you get into windows you go to My Computer, right click on C: drive, select properties, then go to the tools tab and select "check now" under error checking just to make sure that your HDD is ok. Good luck man
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