Myloch wrote:

What to do? Do I try to format the partition with Easeus instead of Windows Xp installer?

You could try it; make a ~10GB NTFS partition in EaseUS and try to install XP on that.

That the surface scan became "slow" at times suggests the drive is on its way out, though.

Myloch wrote:

Weird ass of a netbook hard drive (standard, no ssd): I had to reinstall Win but it hangs during the initial ntfs partition format process saying it cannot do it because the disk is probably damaged. I tried "surface test" feature of Easeus Partition Master but, to my surprise, all sectors are green (ok), even if in two parts of the harddisk the process became very slow (reading speed of sectors). What to do? Do I try to format the partition with Easeus instead of Windows Xp installer?

I agree, the drive is probably on its way out. You can also try running DBAN on it. That will scrub each sector and maybe prompt the drive controller to swap out any weak sectors for spares.

yep, you guys foreshadowed it, the drive died soon after. S.M.A.R.T condition: BAD and the pc has difficulty at accessing it even when mounted as external usb drive. It hangs during formatting with a repetitive led pattern/noise.

It (was) a WD5000LPVX by the way. Not used very much, it had a short life if you ask me.