Steady, cooter79.
I don't know what messages you are getting, but usb errors can occur if you have a lot of devices connected when booting from the hack cd. You only need to have the keyboard and usb cradle connected, so you can disconnect anything else.
When you format the DMS, naturally no data remains, just as if you formatted any other disk. Once you run a format/repair, you just need to get back into Windows and use the Phatnoise software to reload the the firmware onto the DMS. After doing that, delete the files "forceupdate" and "forcesettings" from the phtsys partition.
Now, I cannot overstate this: You
DO NOT have to reload the firmware onto the keg everytime you reload it onto the DMS, so
STOP going back and forth to the car!
If you have formatted, repaired and reloaded firmware onto the DMS, and disconnected any unnecessary devices from your computer, you should be able to boot from the CD and
carefully follow the instructions on the screen to properly patch your keg and build a new DMS. I strongly suggest reading and re-reading this thread:
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1122424315Good luck!