I have a 160gb IDE hard drive which I partitioned into two sections. Lately, attempting to write to the D drive (second partition) would cause the computer to reboot. I performed a chkdsk and a scandisk, which in turn crashed. The primary partition where the OS is stored is unaffected. I was wondering if reformatting the second partition would solve this problem after ckdsk failed on me, or if doing so would actually destroy my hard drive. PC specs if needed: P4vXASD2+ Motherboard 2.4Ghz Intel pentium 4 processor 256 megs of RAM Windows XP Pro SP2 Maxtor 160GB 7200RPM (from reseller. The company replaced the old hard drive after it had failed). Unfortunately the hard drive is out of warranty, so I cannot replace it. At the moment, I do not have the funds to purchase a newer hard drive. Any insight on this would be helpful. Thanks.
are you sure the partition is damaged or is it the partition table that has become corrupted, if it is the partition table, try using some freeware like this BTW: is there any data on the "damaged" partition you wish to retreive if not just delete the partition and download the appropriate utility from the HDD manufactures website and try to repair any damage, if any, it could just be a bad partition
before doing any thing, I would backup any important data! Re-formating the second partition could help!
Alright, I'll try that. If it fails I guess I better start saving for a new hard drive. Thanks for the help.