Is all hope lost?

fordmanchester

Hi

I was having a stupid problem with the clock in my PC taskbar, and a friend suggested that I used the chkdsk /r command to correct the problem.

I SO wish I hadn't listened to my friend!

The chkdsk /r thing completed but now my pc won't start properly. I'm stuck in a loop with the message "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del" appearing repeatedly, no matter what I try to do.

I tried to boot from the original Windows Cd in the hope that I could do some kind of repair, but I can't even do that because the "A disk read error occurred... " message appears even then.

Is all hope lost?

My PC is an old desktop running Windows XP Service Pack 3.

Thanks

NiftyDigits

Brand name and model number?

fordmanchester

Hi NiftyDigits

It's an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750

bod1467

Eh? Brand name and model number of the computer please, not the CPU.

blindman

How are you accessing MSE if the PC is "toast"

Sounds like the Hard disk is bu**ered. However you can try:

Startup and press F8
Menu options should appear
Select "Last Known Good"

If this doesn't work

Repeat and Select "Safe Mode"

Report back :cool:

Tropez

blindman wrote: »

How are you accessing MSE if the PC is "toast"

Tablet, smartphone, another computer...

blindman

Tropez wrote: »

Tablet, smartphone, another computer...

That's the key;)

if the Op replies he\she\may have hope:cool:

fordmanchester

Sorry to appear dense bod1467...I thought the CPU and computer were the same thing. I'm not sure how to find out what you're asking.

Hi blindman... I tried what you suggested but no luck I'm afraid. F8 brings up a Boot Menu and when I select "hard disk", the same "A disk read error occurred..." message appears and I'm back to square one again.

I'm accessing MSE from my dad's desktop PC nextdoor, at the moment.

Nilrem

Does the machine have any branding on the case (or stickers on the back?)

It sounds like the drive is pretty much dead and not working through the windows boot up which is bad.
However if you know someone who is reasonably techy they may be able to put the drive into an external usb enclosure and connect it to a working machine and pull at least some of the important data off (it's a lot less stressful on the drive to do that than for it to boot into windows, and I've had some luck pulling data off in small chunks via a usb caddy in the past).

The chkdsk /r function wouldn't have killed the drive, or hurt it as it only does anything if there is already a problem as it attempts to fix things like lost/corrupted file tables, but if there is a hardware issue the act of doing the scan (or any reasonably intensive hard drive activity) can speed up the total failure of the drive.

About the only good thing in this sort of situation is that hard drives are typically both cheap and easy to replace (one of the first computer fixes I did was fitting a new drive back in the days when it was far more difficult than it is today).

fordmanchester

Hi Nilrem

I checked the case but there is no branding or stickers there.

Thank you for your advice and I've taken your points on board. I don't know anyone techy so I suppose my only option would be to take it somewhere to be repaired? I was hoping to avoid this as it's an added expense I can't afford right now.

I remember the chksdk /r function repairing a couple of orphan files as it did its thing, but nothing else seemed unusual.

bod1467

Is it a Toshiba? What model number?

Is it a Lenovo? What model number?

Is it a Sony? What model number?

Is it an HP? What model number?

Etc.