Help :(! Disk read error??

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 12:22

Hi there,

My computer was working fine yesterday, but this morning it either goes to the window loading screen and staying there for ages, or it says

"DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

! What does that mean?

ChrisLX200 · 3 Feb 2009 at 12:33

It probably means you lost some essential boot files off the hard disk (boot.ini, NTLDR, etc.) If you don't have a backup put the OS CD in the drive and choose to repair the install. It's most likely not a hardware problem.

Ging3r · 3 Feb 2009 at 12:48

Make sure that your Main HD is first in the boot list in Bios

Make sure everythings plugged in securely

Could have some corrupted files, may need to re format

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 12:51

When I try and boot from the OS CD it says that Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer!

ChrisLX200 · 3 Feb 2009 at 14:24

What disk do you have? is it a Seagate 7200.11?

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 14:24

Ok, windows will start in safe mode, but not normal mode :S!

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 14:26

No its a maxtor 250GB, kind of old now.

Admiral Huddy · 3 Feb 2009 at 14:34

I have found on occassions you get this if you leave a USB flash stick plugged in. Some systems, like Dell, look at these regardless of the boot order.

Check also the drive is being seen during POST. If not, the communication (IDE or SATA) cable may have come loose.

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 14:55

The drive is reconised during post, and also I have checked the connections (took it out of the enclousure) and I've tried putting it into a different SATA slot.

My boot order is CD-ROM, HD, Removable. Should I change anything?

Admiral Huddy · 3 Feb 2009 at 14:58

212 said:
The drive is reconised during post, and also I have checked the connections (took it out of the enclousure) and I've tried putting it into a different SATA slot.

My boot order is CD-ROM, HD, Removable. Should I change anything?

Shouldn't make any difference really unless you have a bootable disk in the CD drive. Change it to HDD as first boot anyway (You'll have to change this back again if you end up reinstalling windows).

If that doesn't work then grab a copy of PEBuilder or some other Linux boot disk to examine the contents of the hard drive. PEBuilder comes with the Check Disk built in. You can run this to repair system files. See if that fixes the problem.

EDIT - I just found this on my blog site....Is this Vista or XP?

http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index....sta-error&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=59

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 15:07

Now the disk read error message is back :S!

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 15:08

Its XP mate! Thanks for your help btw

ChrisLX200 · 3 Feb 2009 at 15:12

Admiral Huddy said:
I have found on occassions you get this if you leave a USB flash stick plugged in. Some systems, like Dell, look at these regardless of the boot order.

Check also the drive is being seen during POST. If not, the communication (IDE or SATA) cable may have come loose.

This is true on ASUS boards at least which seem to change boot priority at the drop of a hat. It's solved (on my 2 PCs at least) by ensuring the boot drive is on port0, now it doesn't seem to happen.

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 15:17

I actually have a Asus A8n Sli Deluxe, how do I change the boot to port0?

ChrisLX200 · 3 Feb 2009 at 15:34

212 said:
I actually have a Asus A8n Sli Deluxe, how do I change the boot to port0?

Look at the MB manual to physically identify the position of Port0 on the main board (they're numbered on the motherboard- you want the lowest number as they sometimes start at 0 and sometimes at 1. The OS always calls the first port 0 no matter what they print on the motherboard), plug the SATA lead from the boot drive into that. Go into the BIOS and make sure your boot drive is now listed as the highest priority disk drive from which to boot. You're done.

SoundsGood · 3 Feb 2009 at 15:41

test

test678

Admiral Huddy · 3 Feb 2009 at 15:48

212 said:
Its XP mate! Thanks for your help btw

Shouldn't make any difference (apart from bootrec). Use the "Repair" function from the XP install disk. It will recognise you have XP installed already. Select "Repair" and off you go. You will have to install all your MS updates and drivers again but your programs and data will remain intact.

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 16:43

How do I select repair? Do I have to boot from the disc? It wont let me do that as it says it cannot reconise a hard drive!

Can I do it from windows safe mode?

ChrisLX200 · 3 Feb 2009 at 16:53

You won't be able to get in Safe Mode if it's a disk boot error.
Are you saying after booting from the Windows CD it can't find the drive?? Does it show in BIOS?

Noni Juice · 3 Feb 2009 at 17:00

Yeah when I boot from the disc it says it cannot find an installed hard disk.

It does show it BIOS, in the "Third Sata master" as I changed the SATA cable port randomly. (It shows Maxtor 6L250S0)