I think a lot of people have had problems with XP & McAfee. I for one found that my XP home ground to a crawl until I uninstalled it. I'm now using AVGfree with no problems.
Simon

Thanks for the replies, guys.

There's no problem physically with the drives (they are both new); I've just had loads of problems trying to get my AV software to work with XP Pro (McAfee Security Centre 2005).
I've been zero-filling the drives to enable a fresh install, but I think this may be a bit O.T.T. - as Richard states, a normal format should suffice (I can do that with the XP installation setup, or with the Maxtor hard drive setup software I have).

Cheers.

Chris.

Could be that the drive is actually intermittently faulty. I've had no end of problems with the maxtor hard drives that came with our myriad system.

I suggest you go to the maxtor website http://www.maxtor.com go to [software downloads] and download Powermax, which is their HDD testing application.

Simon
HB Sheffield

I haven't had to do a low level format in more than a decade. All Windows NT based OSes (so NT/2K/XP/2003) all have partitioning and formatting functionality built in to the installation process and I've never had a problem with it.

It would help if you could explain exactly what the problem you are having is?

Incidentally, low level formatting can be done by an end-user. It's just that most modern bioses don't include the option. I'm sure you could find a utility to do it. Not that I'd recommend it these days.

Just wondering what people's experiences of this are ?

I've had a few problems installing XP Pro on my Myriad PC (home studio stand-alone), and I've been low-level formatting (sorry, I've been doing a full zero-fill of the drive; apparently a low-level format is done at the manufacturing stage, and can't be done by the end-user) my 2 Maxtor 200 Gb hard drives after each failed install, to enable a fresh installation again.
I've read on various net forums (I've been busy scouring the web on this subject !) that this isn't really neccessary - a Windows format, or a normal format using using your hard drive manufacturer's utility floppy disc will suffice.
A lot of the advice states you'd only need to do a full zero-fill if you are suffering hard drive problems, or have had a serious virus infection.

I'd be interested in people's views on this subject.

Cheers.

Chris.