My dad got an IBM Aptiva for free. He tried to install Windows 2000, but the formatting stops at 6% and quits. He deleted all partitions with FDISK and created a new one, tried formatting with FORMAT and again, 6% and stop. Does this mean the hard drive is broken? What kind of hard drive can be used in this computer? Thanks for your answers!

http://www.killdisk.com Use this from a MS-DOS boot floppy it will clear completely the hard drive. "What kind of hard drive can be used in this computer?" either IDE/ATAPI or SCSI pop off the case...

And this will help how?? Can there be something in the hard drive that prevents FORMAT from working?

Killdisk removes all traces of any previous formating and partitions and indexes etcetc

My experience with IBM is that, Ibm is very proprietary. Nothing will work unless its an oiginal IBM part or compatibly approved. I noted your RAM rating (192mb), doesnt 2000 and XP require 256 at least? this might be the reason its not completing the installation task. Try starting with a W98'start-up disk (DOS) and Fdisk the HDD, re-Format and SCAN for bad clusters. If it shows more then 5 bad clusters- then this might casue the hang-up during OS installation-the HDD makes good paper weight or door stopper (haha)- Replace the HDD with a low capacity (10-15 gB) for quicker program responses/ and file search.

192mb will quite happily Win 2000 if it is for general surfing and internet access. Saying you can not install an OEM version of W2K is poppycock, also they use standard drives. It is the Mobo/Case/PSU which is proprietary.

"doesnt 2000 and XP require 256 at least?" Oh, those pesky facts Win2K FAQ XP IBMs aren't necessarily or especially proprietary either (unless you're referring to the ancient PS/2 line, which had a different architecture) APTIVA Support (of a sort) I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter.