need help with formatting

did you try formatting it the hard way?

when the comp boots from the cdrom, im assuming you are trying to install windows, but the process is similar with linux, you will get an option to repair the installation, or something to that effect, it will load all the necessary drivers and then give you a command line.

then type "format c:"

seriously though it sounds like something is really wrong. if you can return the hard drive, you are probably better off doing that than trying to get a messed up disk working.

because even if you get it to work it may just fail later on.