Hi all,

I purchased an Inspiron 2500 back in 2002.  About a week after the warranty ran out, the hard drive failed.  I put the laptop in its case, and stuck it in a closet.  I recently purchased a new hard drive for it and am attempting to get the laptop back to life. 

 

I installed the new HD, upgraded the BIOS to A15, the Dell Diagnostic Software Disk will allow the computer to boot up and run the diagnostic software.  The computer passes all of the tests, including the all of the HD tests.  However, when I go to the MS-DOS prompt from the software, it will not format the new hard drive or even recognize it.   I also created a separate DOS Startup Floppy from my desktop.  I included format.exe and debug.exe on this floppy.  The laptop will load up and give me an A:, but it will not format the HD.

 

Any suggestions on how I can get the HD formatted?  I have the original XP install disk, but it won't boot up the computer, either.

 

thanks in advance for your help!!!

 

Judge