C0000221 unknown hard error

[Fermiona]

Hello everyone,

I formatted my laptop by mistake, and now when I tried to reinstall windows I get this error:

Stop:C0000221 unknown hard error

what do I do? The laptop has no OS on it.

Thank you

[-pops-]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314474

You need to re-install Windows, preferably after a format to delete the corrupted version.

[Fermiona]

The problem is I cannot re-install because when I reboot to install from CD, I get the error message right away even before the installation menu appears. Thank you

[Alan2273]

Have you got an internal Zip drive or is your computer connected to a network?.

[-pops-]

The problem is I cannot re-install because when I reboot to install from CD, I get the error message right away even before the installation menu appears. Thank you

That is why I said format first. In your circumstances, you will most likely need to remove the drive from the machine and attach it to another computer to do this.

[Fermiona]

Hello,

Thanks for your replies. Sorry I am not much into computers. My computer is a laptop and it is not connected to a network (I don't even know what a ZIP drive is, sorry).

I don't have another computer to attach the drive too. I don't even know how to remove the drive from my laptop in the first place.

Thank you in advance.