Ok, so a friend of mine has a Panasonic toughbook laptop. It's a centrino, probably like 1.2 GHz or something, about 512MB RAM, 30 or 40GB hd. So he brings it to me because it wouldn't boot up. It just took forever on the Windows XP splash screen, and I think a few times it actually booted up like 30 minutes later or something. The computer boots up fine in safe mode. It's hard to do anything with it because once it does boot up it doesn't respond to anything. I think I got a popup that said something about the registry. I was having a difficult time backing up his files so we can reformat, so we are skipping the backup and just reformatting. I popped in his Windows XP recovery disk, and it we end up getting a blue screen of death. I then went into DOS mode and typed "format C:", which I then typed "Y" and then it is just stuck at 0% complete and does not do anything. It sometimes sounds like my old Gateway laptop when the hard drive was dying, kinda a ticking sound. What should we do at this point?

Hey hey, Formatting Drive C: the way you tried it won't work because the drive is in use, even in DOS mode. Here is the proper way to go about formatting and reinstalling: Restart the PC and go into the BIOS settings screen by pressing F8 (or whatever key it says on the screen to press to get into SETUP.) Once in there, find the setting for BOOT ORDER and change the boot order to CD first, then Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Insert the Windows CD and reboot. It should boot from the Windows CD and take you into the set-up screen to format & reinstall the Operating System to original factory settings (or to install a Windows standard installation, depending on the CD you have from your manufacturer.) Make sure you have a valid working Windows key to input during installation. (It should be either on the CD sleeve or under the laptop on a sticker.) Follow the on-screen steps and you should be golden. If this doesn't work, or you hear crazy ticking from your hard drive, maybe the drive needs to be replaced. (However, this is a distant Step #2. Try a proper Windows reinstall first.)

There is no point reinstalling Windows on a drive that is failing! Run a manufacturer's diagnostic test on the HDD .... if there are repairable errors -- have the utility repair them. If the errors are non-repairable or the result is hopeless, you are better off replacing the disk than trying to run it on its last leg.

I would assume there is nothing wrong with the drive unless symptoms appear during a proper Windows install, so I would try that first. But what Sabertooth says is fair enough.

I agree with Sabertooth. If a DOS format can't get off the ground, I would say that the hard drive probably has a problem. A Manufacturer's diagnostic should help.

Might look at the tough book doc's. Some of those models have some odd stuff going on in the name of tough. Might have a SSHD and special controller for it. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.