A disk read error ocurred

GTG

After the manufacturers splash screen my laptop attempts to boot but only gets as far as "initiallising mouse" then goes to a black screen with the message "a disk error has ocurred please press ctrl+alt+dlt". Once I've done this it goes through the same routine indefinately.
My machine is four year old, it did not come with a XP home CD but came instead with a system recovery disk and a disk with utilies and drivers to restore it to the state when it left the factory. I have tried using the recovery disk but nothing happens, I followed the instructions and ensured that the CD drive was number one in the boot sequence. The CD drive was "playing up" before this issue occurred though.
Can anyone diagnose the problem and suggest a solution, my machine has two floppy drives if that helps?

TIA

j1mgg

can you boot into advanced startup options by pressing f8 and then choosing last known good configuration?

if this doesnt work do it again and try booting into it using safe mode and go to device manager

start - control panel - system - hardware tab - device manager button

then scroll down to dvd/cd rom drives and double click yours and see what the status off it is.

using the recovery disk will wipe all off your data on the machine

GTG

j1mgg wrote: »

can you boot into advanced startup options by pressing f8 and then choosing last known good configuration?

if this doesnt work do it again and try booting into it using safe mode and go to device manager

start - control panel - system - hardware tab - device manager button

then scroll down to dvd/cd rom drives and double click yours and see what the status off it is.

using the recovery disk will wipe all off your data on the machine

Thanks for the reply, I'll get back with the result once I get time to give it a go.

Little_John

2 floppy drives in a laptop?

Anyway a disk read error indicates the drive is failing, so it is a good idea to get a new drive before you continue, if you manage to get the old drive to read then you will want to copy your doc's etc off it at the soonest possible chance you get.

So whats wrong? you have a failed/failing hard drive and a cd drive that is also causeing you problems. a new drive will cost £30-£40ish a new cd drive is another £20 so for £60 you could be up and running again. but is it really worth spending the money on an old laptop or putting it towards a new one?

If you buy new drives, install them and then you will put the recovery cd in and boot to that it will restore your operating system to as it was the day it was bought you can then do as you wish installing all your software and getting it back to where you want it.

Asus_Mobo

Little_John wrote: »

If you buy new drives, install them and then you will put the recovery cd in and boot to that it will restore your operating system to as it was the day it was bought you can then do as you wish installing all your software and getting it back to where you want it.

:beer:

As long as the restore disc doesnt point to initiation files on a partition on the original HDD, or you may have to create a partition and somehow get the files over to the new partition on the new drive, and thats a pain in the behind.

Little_John

yes but if the drive isnt reading then he is screwed.

GarethM_2

The problem you are having is related more than likely to a bad cluster on your hard drive, one of the first signs that your hard drive is on its way out and you may need to get a new one. To fix (at the least temporarily) in order to recover your irreplaceable files and back them up.

- Insert your Windows CD and restart your computer. When it says it is booting from CD let it.

- After it does it rather long winded loading stint, and you get to the screen talking about a Recovery Console, press R to go into that Recovery Console and then press 1 for your Windows Installation.

- At the prompt thatcomes up (you should something like C:WINDOWS>), type chkdsk /r. This will perfomr a very long scan of your PC and correct the disk error.

- Once it has done that, go back into Windows and copy all your irreplaceable files onto some other removable media like a CD/DVD.

- If you notice the problem keeps recurring you will need to get a new Hard drive.

Hope this helps and no, these instructions weren't copied, I just like making steps clear :P

GTG

ubergeek wrote:

Do you have up-to date anti virus installed?

See my signature, religiously kept up to date by checking for updates immediately after logging in as well as scheduled updates.

GarethM wrote:

Insert your Windows CD and restart your computer. When it says it is booting from CD let it.

- After it does it rather long winded loading stint, and you get to the screen talking about a Recovery Console, press R to go into that Recovery Console and then press 1 for your Windows Installation.

- At the prompt thatcomes up (you should something like C:WINDOWS>), type chkdsk /r. This will perfomr a very long scan of your PC and correct the disk error.

- Once it has done that, go back into Windows and copy all your irreplaceable files onto some other removable media like a CD/DVD.

Your help is appreciated but my CD Rom is n't working, see my OP.

I did manage to get it started again by downloading some boot disks from Microsoft on a friends computer. I worked with it for a little while but it has "blue screened" 3 times, I got MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION on one ocassion and KERNAL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR twice. When these occur a slight clicking noise can be heard. Is this a hard drive problem?

I checked device manager and found that my CD/DVD drive is enabled and reported as working correctly.