Hard Drive Failure?

[natepate8]

ok so i tried starting up my laptop today and a black screen came up with white lettering saying "error loading operating system" so then i figured something went really wrong and i would have to re-install windows so i tried that and wen i tried to format the ntsf drive it said "setup was unable to format the partition. the disk may be damaged" please help me!!!....also i have tried using the dells windows installation cd and got the same reslut

[Spider]

Hi natepate8 welcome to CyberTechHelp.

What make and model is that Dell?

[bAdWaYz]

Do you have a Windows install cd on hand? You could boot to a install cd then get into the revovery console once there just pick the windows install you want to fix "most people only have one listed so just hit the enter key. Then it may ask you an admin password. If you set a password for windows just use it. Now at a command promt type chkdsk and hit enter. That will check the hard drive for band places and such. After its done it will display what it finds. You can then at the prompt type chkdsk /R the /R switch will allow chkdsk to try and fix the problems it finds. Sometimes this works well but if the disk is too badly damaged its just a temp fix at best.