i tried everything no matter what i couldnt get it to act right so finally i said to hell with it ill format well setup gets to about 68% of formatting and stalls, but not frozen. after what semed forever and definitely longer then it should have been, it jumped to 70%. continued normally to 74% then stalled again. and this time it has not moved on and this was about an hour ago that it got to 74%. i am assuming the hard drive has failed. is there any way i can "recover" or fix this hard drive cause i really dont want to have to buy a new one??? thanx all! life is like a box of stale and moldy chocolates

Did you try to install with another cd?Operating system whatever.

What is the model number of the drive?

ALWAYS use the software that's designed for your hard drive. Credit for the following link goes to Dan Penny...he recently posted it in the Win95/98 forum: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

i have tried three differant copies of my OS CD so no issue there it is a hitachi driove but no model # sticker is ripped off... so you mean jam that formatting regular windows boot disk regular windows setup is not okay to do?? why is this?? never had a prob with it before... update: after 3 hours it was on 78% i guess it will finish if i leave it over night but something is definitely up... life is like a box of stale and moldy chocolates

dude, what you're doing obviously isn't working...all you're doing is wasting your time. Use the Hitachi diagnostic software to test the condition of your HDD, you don't need a model number. Just download the software, use it to create a bootable floppy, then boot off it & run the test

A bad drive is usually.. a bad drive - assuming cables & whatnot are ruled out The odds are slim (imo) of restoration, but it won't get much worse by trying the diagnostic Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home