OS install Unknown disk not WinXP home edition compatible

[Soheils91]

a while back a virus came and formatted my computer
i then formatted the computer again using the Recovery DOS from the winxp cd. I then went into the setup for the OS and deleted the old partition and created a new one. i tried installing the os beforce deleting the old and i would get this error saying that i had an unknown disk and that it was not winxp home compatible. I created a new partition and tried again. Same message. I tried formatting the new partition, then tried installing the OS again, same message. Im beggining to think it might be a hardware problem or a bad connection or something in the tower because i had a problem before as well when it would always give me this error saying it couldnt write data to the c drive and that it was unaccesible or unviewable/findable. I really think the problem is with my harddrive. please help me.
Ill try installing windows 98SE on it, that didnt have any of these problems, god i hate MS but my parents wont let me run linux on it or anything. Windows XP is a very buggy OS and if anyone else has had any problems with it like this i would be very happy if i could get any any advice!!!

Bump me! Oh and by the way, i had had win xp working fine on the system before!
ill post the computer stats if you need them!

[daveleau]

a:\fdisk /mbr

This will format your MBR (master boot record). This and recreation of your partitions will help with reclaiming control of your drive. If that does not work alone, then low level format and then start over. That is probably not necessary, and the MBR format will probably fix this.

Do you know what virus you had? Some reside in the MBR and this could be the issue.

[Soheils91]

Bump ^^^

If you weren't able to use a 9X bootdisk and the "FDISK/MBR" command like suggested above, try using the XP CD and going into the "Recovery Console". Use the "FIXMBR" command to rewrite the MBR.

The "FIXMBR" and "FDISK" are both used in the event a virus has rewritten the MBR. Usually you are met w/ an "Invalid System Disk" error during bootup.

[Soheils91]

thanx alot guys, but the problem was in the BIOS, it seems my jumper was set to manual, and was for some reason looping, it would check unpartitioned data and say that the data is not qualified or compatible, weird errors, thanx anyways. Ive never experienced this before!