Discussion
Just popped over from the TVR forum for some urgent help.
I am obviously a muppet as far as technical matters on computers are concerned and I have a problem. The computer worked fine up till yesterday no problems at all. Today I switched it on and all I get is a message saying "A disk read error occured. Press control+alt+del to restart" I do as it says but I just get the same message again.
Is this terminal or is there something I can do?
It was running windows XP home edition if that makes any difference.
I am using my daughters PC to send this message for help.
I am obviously a muppet as far as technical matters on computers are concerned and I have a problem. The computer worked fine up till yesterday no problems at all. Today I switched it on and all I get is a message saying "A disk read error occured. Press control+alt+del to restart" I do as it says but I just get the same message again.
Is this terminal or is there something I can do?
It was running windows XP home edition if that makes any difference.
I am using my daughters PC to send this message for help.
I assume it's Windows XP that you are running .....
Can you start the computer in "safe mode" ..... start the computer, and after the BIOS check, then immediately press the F8 key - it should bring up a screen with some options - one of which is "Safe Mode" .... select that and see what happens.
As an aside - exactly how far does it get before the error?
K
Can you start the computer in "safe mode" ..... start the computer, and after the BIOS check, then immediately press the F8 key - it should bring up a screen with some options - one of which is "Safe Mode" .... select that and see what happens.
As an aside - exactly how far does it get before the error?
K
yes it's windows Xp home edition.
It's a Dell PC so I get the Dell logo and and an empty bar beneath it which fills up like when a page is loading etc. While this is going on there are two options in the top right corner saying F2 Setup and F12 Boot menu.
However, just as the bar fills up thats when I get the "A disk read error occured etc" and it goes no further.
Tried pressing F8 while all this was going on but nothing happened.
It's a Dell PC so I get the Dell logo and and an empty bar beneath it which fills up like when a page is loading etc. While this is going on there are two options in the top right corner saying F2 Setup and F12 Boot menu.
However, just as the bar fills up thats when I get the "A disk read error occured etc" and it goes no further.
Tried pressing F8 while all this was going on but nothing happened.
Ray,
I've never used a Dell before so kind of limited in what I can do going forward ....
I will be honest and confess that I'm very nervous about going down a specific route which I've never done myself.
Have you been through the Dell support website? http://support.euro.dell.com/support/
Hopefully a fellow Dell user will come along shortly, and will be able to help.
Sorry.
K
I've never used a Dell before so kind of limited in what I can do going forward ....
I will be honest and confess that I'm very nervous about going down a specific route which I've never done myself.
Have you been through the Dell support website? http://support.euro.dell.com/support/
Hopefully a fellow Dell user will come along shortly, and will be able to help.
Sorry.
K
Hmm.. it will be pretty difficult to dig any deeper without an XP CD to go with it.. 
Could be something simple though.. like IDE cable on the hard drive? Or it could be that the hard drive is physically knackered! Although my guess is that the Master Boot Record has been corrupted, which means using an XP cd to fix unfortunately..
Maybe you could buy
a copy?
Could be something simple though.. like IDE cable on the hard drive? Or it could be that the hard drive is physically knackered! Although my guess is that the Master Boot Record has been corrupted, which means using an XP cd to fix unfortunately..
Maybe you could buy
a copy?
Should you dare to take it.Now I'm not 100% about that, with it being Dell, and a different CD etc.. but more than likely yes it would work fine!
Well, there would be a number of things to do then.. Boot up into the CD using the F12 boot menu, then you would have to use the recovery console to run 'chkdsk'
A guide on the recovery console can be found 'ere:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/31405
Once you run chkdsk you will see if there are any flaws with the hard drive, and hopefully fix them
If that doesn't work then you will probably have to report back here!
Well, there would be a number of things to do then.. Boot up into the CD using the F12 boot menu, then you would have to use the recovery console to run 'chkdsk'
A guide on the recovery console can be found 'ere:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/31405
Once you run chkdsk you will see if there are any flaws with the hard drive, and hopefully fix them
If that doesn't work then you will probably have to report back here!
If it's a dell... and it came without a windows CD it will probably have a recovery partition on HD however i've seen that error before... in my case it was computer talk for 'buy me a new HD'. That fixed the problem.
EDIT: after a more careful read on the thread.. the fixmbr simply fixed master boot record... but the computer isn't complaining about that... its saying it cannot read the disk ie. broken.
However, if you can get into recovery console do try repairing the HD with scandisk.
www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html << useful utilty (assuming you can get it onto disk with a different comp.) it will give detailed scan and tell you what's up with your HD.
EDIT: after a more careful read on the thread.. the fixmbr simply fixed master boot record... but the computer isn't complaining about that... its saying it cannot read the disk ie. broken.
However, if you can get into recovery console do try repairing the HD with scandisk.
www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html << useful utilty (assuming you can get it onto disk with a different comp.) it will give detailed scan and tell you what's up with your HD.
Edited by bez_uk on Friday 1st September 23:18
If it's a modern Dell.
On boor press F12 for the "One time boot menu". Select Diagnostics.
It'll run through various BIOS checks of the system and then attempt to load up stuff hidden away on the disk; it'll probably fail to do this... however it'll throw out an error code.
Jot down the error code and if the system is under waranty phone Dell :-)
If not drop the reinstall CD in the drive and see if Windows can detect the old installation and repair it, if it can't or starts complaining about not being able to find a valid hard drive... then we've narrowed it down to three things:
1. Disk controller on the mobo (this is bad).
2. Hard Drive is fubar (this is bad if you don't have a backup).
3. The IDE/SATA cable is loose/dead.
Open the side panel and make sure the cable going between the motherboard and HDD is firmly attached; if this doesn't fix it then gently remove the cable and go to PC World or a local bits place and get a new cable, if this hasn't fixed it then repeat expect with a new or spare HDD.
If the system is still banjo'd after this and refuses to see a 'new' drive and new cable then it's #1 and the computer is pretty much dead unless you happen across one on ebay you can scavenge for parts.
On boor press F12 for the "One time boot menu". Select Diagnostics.
It'll run through various BIOS checks of the system and then attempt to load up stuff hidden away on the disk; it'll probably fail to do this... however it'll throw out an error code.
Jot down the error code and if the system is under waranty phone Dell :-)
If not drop the reinstall CD in the drive and see if Windows can detect the old installation and repair it, if it can't or starts complaining about not being able to find a valid hard drive... then we've narrowed it down to three things:
1. Disk controller on the mobo (this is bad).
2. Hard Drive is fubar (this is bad if you don't have a backup).
3. The IDE/SATA cable is loose/dead.
Open the side panel and make sure the cable going between the motherboard and HDD is firmly attached; if this doesn't fix it then gently remove the cable and go to PC World or a local bits place and get a new cable, if this hasn't fixed it then repeat expect with a new or spare HDD.
If the system is still banjo'd after this and refuses to see a 'new' drive and new cable then it's #1 and the computer is pretty much dead unless you happen across one on ebay you can scavenge for parts.
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