segsig

Hi everyone-new to this forum. I have an issue with my older vaio desktop PCV-RX670 which I love and trying to get it going again. I had a couple of issues with some programs and decided to reformat the 160 gb HD that was in the machine and bring it back to manufacturers condition as I hadnt done it in a few years. Well, it started the process but during the "creating partition" part of step 1, it basically stopped towards the end and the timer just kept counting up--tried it 3x and even let it run over night but the blue line never finished. Any idea why this would happen? I even went out and tried a brand new 160 gb hd but with the same results. Ironically, I threw in a 40 gb hd I had laying around and it worked without a hitch. thanks, and any help anyone can offer would be appreciated as I really need more then a 40 gb hd.