Looks like the hard drive might be having a problem. If you have the drivers disc, boot off that and run an extended test on the hard drive.

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@wolfe777 wrote:

i turned on my dell inspiron 5100 and put my restore cd in and tried to format computer and got this message

 

 

setup was unable to format the partition. the disk may be damaged

make sure the drive is switched on and properly conected to your computer.if the disk is a SCSI
DISK, make sure your scsi  scsi adapter documetation for more information 

 

 

any budd have a clue

 

is the recovery disk no good  

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Your cd/dvd  restore cd might be damage. Try calling up dell for a replament. I don't think it would be your hard drive like the other guy told you it could also be your cd/dvd drive could be bad.