My totalled computer

[adastalin]

I was wondering if anyone could help, since my computer is resisting all attempts to fix it.
Earlier today, it crashed while Norton antivirus 2003 was purging those stupid backup files it constantly makes. On rebooting, it got to the windows 2000 boot screen, but when the bar filled, I got a blue screen of death for about 1/2 a second before the computer rebooted itself. This of course repeated itself continually.
I figured I could just wipe the hard drive and start again as I have all the other times windows has given up on me, but for some reason I get another BSOD because there is a sector that it refuses to format.
So my question is: how the hell do I fix it?

[splatz]

leae it alone for a couple of days and pray it fixes itself. that or your hdd died. =]

[Blood]

what the hell are you trying to format it with

[adastalin]

I told it to format via the install disc.

[cundor]

is it plugged in correctly?

[adastalin]

Yes, it switches on and detects everything...it just doesnt run windows or formats.

[Blood]

use a startup diskette, a win98 startup disk will do, to start the computer up to DOS and then format it, if you cant do it via the xp install cd

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

I'd fdisk it too, just to be safe. Maybe wipe the MBR if you're feeling saucy.

[adastalin]

OK, it seems nothing will persuade the hard disk to format, but thanks for all the suggestions anyway. I believe this means that I have broken the hard disk, but how I could have managed this remains a mystery.
I was wondering if some of it might be salvagable if I fiddled with the jumpers and made it secondary.