reformatting hard drive to correct problems??

Question

System:  Dimension XPS T600 mhz pent 3 w/ mmx, 256 mb ram, 27 gb ultra ata hd (approx 14 gb used), 8x/4x/32x cd-rw, 32 mb diamond viper 770d nvidia Problem:  My son tried to load Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne last week.  The system froze. I did ctrl-alt-del to restart.  The computer failed to boot up properly after that, always stopping with the dell logo screen with no beeps.  Using advice I found on the bios forum, I was able to get the computer to partially boot up after I unhooked the cd and external devices. The cd still failed to open with Warcraft 3 cd disk still stuck inside.  I defragged the c drive.  System restore would not work, stating there were no restorable points even though it showed dates with check points.  I tried to run scan disk but it gets about halfway and gives the message 'another program, possibly Windows, has written to the disk and scan disk needs to be restarted'.  I figured it would be best to start from scratch and reformat the hard drive.   can get to the A drive prompt through a Windows ME startup disk I made.  However, before I do that I would like to know if this will fix the cd drive problem, ie, it seems as if the cd is not being properly recognized as a device since the door won't open.  Reason being, I need the cd to work so that I can reload my Windows 98 se after reformatting.  Does anyone have any helpful advice re: how to fix these problems?  Is it OK to reformat and will it be helpful in getting things to run proprly again?

osprey4 · Answer

With the system powered down, or the drive unplugged, you can insert a straightened paper clip into the little hole in the front bezel of the drive to open the drive door and retrieve the game disc.   I'm not sure if the ME boot disc will work. You may need to go to http://www.bootdisk.com/ to download and prepare a Windows 98 boot disk.   Make sure you follow the reinstall guide for your system. To find the reinstall guide, downloads and other information for your system, hover your mouse cursor over the Product Support button (upper left of this page), and select Reinstall Guide (or Downloads or whatever). Then enter your service tag number and operating system, and you'll find all the information you need. This will help you get started:   http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?c=us&cs=19&DN=1026820&type=SRG&l=en&s=dhs

Storage, Drives & Media

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