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    Formatting stuck at 0%

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by SuperKungFu, Jun 9, 2011.

  1. SuperKungFu

    SuperKungFu Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys, need some help here:

    Just got a new laptop, the Dell XPS 15 (L502X). As tradition, I usually format the hard drive since I don't like the factory's default softwares and I just want to start fresh.

    So I inserted the win 7 cd, deleted the original recovery partition (since it was taking up 15 gigs therefore I have 700 gigs free). Created my own partition (200 gigs for C - windows, and 500 gig for D - files). Alright when I click next to format, it is stuck at 0% for 30 mins and then it says fails.

    Now I've encountered a similar problem in the past with my older Inspiron 1720, it had a serial ATA hard drive. And before I installed windows, I had to install a driver (the intel matrix storage manager driver). Once I've installed that, installing windows no longer became stuck and it was ready to go.

    Now back to my current problem, with the XPS 15, it has a SATA hard drive as well. But when I look at the dell website for the driver, I don't see an intel matrix storage manager driver like I did with the i1720. I just see a "Rapid Storage Technology" under the SATA drives tab and it doesn't work. Once I install that, windows is still stuck at 0%.

    Any help would be appreciated.
     
    SuperKungFu, Jun 9, 2011
    #1
  2. NoSlow5oh

    NoSlow5oh Notebook Evangelist

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    I haven't seen that happen before. My first quick solution would be to put the hdd in an external and do your partitions and formatting there. Then stick it in the lappy and tell windows where to install.
     
    NoSlow5oh, Jun 10, 2011
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  3. Falco152

    Falco152 Notebook Demon

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    I didn't see this when I did mine...then again I had a SP1 disk on hand.

    Are you doing this with an older w7 install disk?

    If it is, you need to install Intel Series 6 Chipset first before which is off the Intel Download. You only need the F6 Chipset, and install as additional driver in your w7 install. Then you can format and partition.

    Since this is a new drive , there is really no point doing a normal full format. A quick format would do fine, assuming that Dell has sent you a non-defective drive and have faith in that. A full format is usually necessary when drives gets aged, and all it really do is flag bad sectors typically found in old age and heavy usage.

    If it fails again, there could be serious problem with your drive.
     
    Falco152, Jun 10, 2011
    #3