A disc read error has occured with bootcamp - Help!!

UTTER_FILTH · 20 Apr 2010 at 08:49

I have just got my 27" iMac and.....

I wanted to install Windows XP, it took two attempts to actually get through the whole installation process without the system freezing up.

Windows was on and running fine until last night I tried to boot into windows and I got a black screen with "A Disc Read Error has occurred, Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to continue." To which I did and nothing happened.

To cut a long story short, I have formatting (NTFS Both normal and quick) and re-installing at 9 times now, with the result being that Windows XP cant even get to the main installation part (once it reboots after formatting and installing some files), all I keep getting is the black screen with Disc Read Error.

I've tried cloning the XP and burning it onto a CDR.. That didnt work either.

I've googled the error and it's happened to quite a few people, but so far I have found no solution.

Anyone else come across this? Did you manage to fix it?

quickshot89 · 20 Apr 2010 at 11:11

hard drive failure?

Rameses · 20 Apr 2010 at 12:51

Delete the Bootcamp partition, make sure the disc is clean and also that it is Windows XP SP2.

Try again.

arty · 20 Apr 2010 at 13:30

I fixed this by starting again and selecting full format when installing Windows rather than the quick format I originally used. Don't know if that's any help

arty

UTTER_FILTH · 20 Apr 2010 at 13:57

I've tried both quick format and full format.

The disc I have is windows XP professional SP3. It worked fine when I installed onto the macbook pro I had before the iMac. I've also used to Disc Utility to take an image of it and burn it onto a brand new CDR, this had no effect.

Rameses · 20 Apr 2010 at 14:03

Sounds like your iMac is broken, give it to me.

UTTER_FILTH · 21 Apr 2010 at 11:18

Well I think I may have fixed it!

Instead of burning the windows disc onto a CDR, I put it on a DVDRW Instead. It installed fine, however, it has come up with the disc error message once when starting up, so I'm not totally convinced this is the last of my problems..

Should be picking up a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium on Friday quite cheaply, so if anything does go wrong, I'll have a try with Windows 7 next time.