I am trying to install OS into a 12 GB hard drive in a IBM thinkpad T-22 laptop. It does not let me install in operating system. I tried installing windows ME, windows 2000 and windows XP. It would go to the point where it windows setup is about to format the hard drive and at that point it gets stuck with a blue screen with some generic error messages. I tried FDISK, it does not work. I also tried doing CHKDSK, it does not recognise the command. Could the hrad drive be bad???

Test the HDD first, if it passes the test with no errors (doubt it), go ahead and write zeroes to it. You can then repartition and reformat the HDD before reloading your desired OS on it. When Google isn't your best pal

Would you kindly give me the details on how to test the Hard Drive? I am not sure how to do that. Thank you.

Download and follow the simple instructions for running and you'll be all set. When Google isn't your best pal

My MFT was corrupted on one of my hard drives and it had the same symptoms you mention. If there is nothing on the hard drive you need to save, just format it, run chkdsk and then install your OS. Ray

Guys, Thanks a bunch for all your help. I tried to follow the instructions as mentioned in reponse # 3. But the problem is the laptop does not have a floppy drive. I tried copying the files in a CD and trying that way, but it did not work. I do not have naything in the hard drive and I am trying a clean install. As I mentioned earlier, it gets stuck after formatting is complete by the win XP installation. I guess I am going to take a picture of the blue screen w/ the error message that comes up and post it here. I have used the FDISK to creat partition as well but that did not help. Please let me know if you guys have any more ideas for me. Thanks a bunch...

I would suggest a RAM issue. In my experience bad ram is usually bought to the front during OS installs, especially windows, as it is pretty system intesive. If you have 2 sticks of ram, try installing with one stick at a time in the system. This has solved so many blue screen issues for me during installation! AMD Athlon64 3500+ 1024MB 512x2 Dual Channel Corsair TwinX Coolermaster Wavemaster 120GB Seagate SATA HDD Gecube X800XT Platinum Logitch 5.1 Surround LG 16x Dual Layer DVD Countle