Ten reasons why I like Windows Vista

no linux experience, but was gettn' ready to learn.....
-got tired of waitn' on dells useless test
used a hard drive to usb converter earlier and the good system would read the bad hard drive and auto restart and fail just the same as the bad hard drive b4 i could do anything to it.....both windows of course
-cancelled all dells test, installed microsofts hotfix on good system, hooked up usb connect to bad hard drive, and got it to reformat....now to put back in other computer an see if can get a install on vist again. cross my fingers, i have no comp. knowledge other then just jakcn around.....let ya'll know what happens

 

I could also note that most hard drive manufacturers have a sort of diagnostic disc image you can download and make a floppy out of (assuming you even have one). There are ways to get it to work on a CD, with Nero there's an actual section to use the floppy disk image. If you're not worried about getting any of the data, the program will usually write all 0's to the hard drive, or if you really want to be sure noone can ever see your data, it'll do 0's, then 1's, then 0's again... several times.

A search for "seagate low level format" will provide the tool referenced above... pretty sure it'll work with other brands. I have a hard time remembering if Dell uses Maxtor or Seagate. I see them both at work all the time, but we have Dells and Compaqs.

 

I absolutely love Macs at work. Not because people don't ask to support them, but simply because I don't/won't support them.

 

not sure where to insatll vist....in the partition 2 at 10gb....proably for backup or in the partition 3 at 285gb....i assume there
yep nevermind, it just told me.....thanks guys for all your help!

 

To me it sounds like Dell had the diagnostic tools installed on a separate partition so you could hit F10 or something during boot to access the diagnostic/repair mode. If it were me and I weren't going to use that, I'd just make them into one partition.

In case you didn't know, to access the disk management utility in Windows, go to Start, Run (in Vista, Windows key+R) and type "diskmgmt.msc" and press enter. There you can play with the actual partitions on each drive in the system. It should also be in the administrative tools section on the start menu/control panel, if you have it enabled.

 

sweet, appreciate it.....