Question : Problem: How to format and fix Bad Sectors on a Notebook computer with No Floppy or CD ??

Hi... I've an old notebook computer ( PII 366 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 6.0 GB ,Network Ehernet Card, Fax/Modem) and I've a really hard problem which is :

I had some bad sectors caused my operating system ( MS Windows Millenium ) to be unstable and about to collapse and lose all my critical data & files.

Due to some circumstances I've some problems with my Floppy Drive and it can't accept any Floppy Diskettes... Also my CD-Rom Drive can't read many CDs so I can't boot with a CD.

The problem is that I'm in a place TOO Far from any Maintanence & Support Centre and I don't have time to fix my notebook.

Now I want to format my BOOT Drive and fix the bad sectors and then setup a new installation of Windows Millenium, But most of the programs in the market requires Floppy Drive to perform a test on the bad sectors... So what is the solution ??

Please, guide me to any program or materials to solve my urgent case.

Thanks...

Answer : Problem: How to format and fix Bad Sectors on a Notebook computer with No Floppy or CD ??

OK

The best thing for you to do now is to "Tell" the OS not to access where the bad sectors are... So, in order for you to do that:

First Run 'ScanDisk /Autofix /Surface' from the command prompt (i.e. Start => Run... => type 'command' and press 'Enter').

This may take a while for you to do, so drink some cofee and relax. This operation will mark all bad sectors and will not allow the OS to write data over there.

Also, a good suggestion is to partition your drive in-to two parts where the Bad sectors will be on one partition and the other partition will consists of no bad sectors.

Eather way... do replace your drive ASAP. Bad sectors has the habbit of spreading...

Hope that helped and if you need more info; just say so...

Cyber