A disk read error occurred 3

[hondaman2003]

A disk read error occurred.
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL

This error happened overnight. It's not a pop-up but rather on a DOS screen. I had a few applications open that I was working with before going to bed but they shouldn't have actually done anything. Before going to bed I was trying to install a printer but was not successful.

Here is the interesting part, when I boot to a windows XP CD, it says it's says "Setup is determining your hardware configuration" very quickly then disappears to a black screen without a blinking cursor. I am able to boot to knoppix where I can read from the hard drive. I backed up my files from there. I am also able to perform a scan with GWSCAN. It's a hard drive utility made for Gateway by western digital. I never finds an error with the hard drive in either a quick scan or extended scan. I created a boot CD with the windows setup on it, but that it would boot me to a DOS prompt. I was able to run a GWSCAN from here and also update the bios to the latest version. After updating the bios, I will have the disk read error. In addition I still cannot boot to a windows cd. Finally, I rebooted to that boot cd I created and attempted to start windows setup from there but get the error message 'An internal error setup occured. Could not find a place for a swap file. Setup cannot continue. Press enter to exit."

I am out of options, I have no idea what to do anymore. Can anyone help?

 

[stduc]

Are you saying you had this issue after updating the BIOS?

I would first check the drive connections are OK. Both power & data.

Since you seem happy to re-install I would do a zero fill on the drive using the WD utility (it should have that as an option). That should remove any corruption that may be present with the drive formatting or track one. The Windows install should then offer to reformat the drive. Do a full, not quick, format.

If that doesn't let you do an install and the issue isn't with the BIOS (You can see the drive in the BIOS if you go into setup I presume?). Then maybe you need a new drive? As I have a paid up copy of Spinrite I would try that next and see what it reports, but I'm not sure it's worth buying a license just for a single problem.

 

[goombawaho]

I would run the Western Digital diagnostic utility but NOT in wipe mode, just run a long scan of the drive to find out if the drive has any physical issues.

Then, if it's okay, you can wipe it and try again.

 

[stduc]

I would run the Western Digital diagnostic utility but NOT in wipe mode, just run a long scan of the drive to find out if the drive has any physical issues.

He has already done that - which is why I suggested a zero fill (wipe).

I never finds an error with the hard drive in either a quick scan or extended scan

 

[hondaman2003]

I should clarify, this issue started after leaving the computer on all night with a few applications open. I had been trying to install a printer but that didn't work, I was getting error regarding the spooler. I gave up after a while.

After finishing, I simply moved on to some other things and left it on when I went to bed. The next morning this message was waiting for me on a DOS screen.

This is a laptop. I did remove the HDD and reinsert it to make sure it had as good a connection as I could give it.

I updated the BIOS because it was suggested to me to attempt to fix this issue.

In the BIOS, the HDD is recognized but as a 137GB, it's actually 250GB. Does that matter?

 

[stduc]

You haven't said which laptop (make & model it is) but some, such the Inspiron, don't have 48bit LBA support & therefore don't recognise drives larger than 137GB. XP SP2 added it's own LBA drivers to overcome this limitation. Alternatively you may have chosen the wrong BIOS update? You may want to re-check that. It's shouldn't be an issue though as you can partition the drive and use the rest for data.

If you can, go to western digitals website and download and burn a bootable CD-ROM with the diagnostics and check the SMART status and run the full diagnostics to look for any bad sectors. Then do a zero fill if the drive is not reported as failing which will ensure virus's and or a corrupt MBR are wiped clean. The XP Install disk should then offer to format the drive. Do a full not a quick format to ensure once again that any bad sectors are flagged as such and not used.

 

[BadBigBen]

I'll throw my two cents worth in the fray...

it sounds like the MBR got axed/scrambled/mushed (you get the idea), thus windows can not boot from it... Setup detects that the drive is in use and can not make heads-or-tails of the situation and bonks out...

I also agree that wiping the drive (Aktive@Killdisk or Darik's Boot and Nuke) should be the next step, drive check and Knoppix passed, and data was saved to another drive...

you could try the following though before hand:

boot the XP CD, then enter the RECOVERY CONSOLE and log on to the installed Windows, then issue the following commands:

fixmbr
fixboot

then remove CD and see if it will boot...

skip down to section: How to use the Recovery Console

in the following KB article:

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[hondaman2003]

The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6000. That would make sence that the computer would only recognize a certain size or small of hard drive but that windows would be capable of seeing a large hard drive. I just checked the Dell website and confirmed everything I can see that I selected the correct BIOS. I remember selecting the smart status from the menu and it also could not find any issues.

I am writting zero's now from the GWSCAN program. I will post back in about an hour when that is complete.

 

[hondaman2003]

I wrote zero's to the HDD and the windows cd WAS able to boot this time. I am currently formatting in NTFS (Full format). I will continue installing windows. If I have any other issues I will post back! Thank you to everyone for contributing to this conversation!

 

[stduc]

I'm glad you got it sorted. Let's hope it was a 'one off' and not related to pending hard disk failure. If SMART says the drive is OK then that points to a one off issue of some kind.

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[hondaman2003]

Thank you for the help!

I am in windows again and installing everything.

 

[stduc]

I'm glad to hear it. Perhaps time to consider getting a USB drive and some decent imaging software like Acronis or Shadow Protect. Both can be trialled before you have to buy. I used to be a fan of Acronis but have moved onto shadow protect now as it seems to be more reliable. Restoring an image takes me about 15 minutes, beats a re-install hands down.

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[hondaman2003]

I appreciate the advice! I will look into it!

 

[goombawaho]

For the record, regarding "already done that" - "It's a hard drive utility made for Gateway by western digital."

It's not the same as Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, which is what I would have used. But in the end, it probably wasn't an issue of hard drive fitness so moot point. But I never like to be corrected or wrong.

 

[stduc]

True, but he seemed stuck to the software he already had - the devil you know & all that. So I wasn't going to argue that he had run a different piece of software that said the drive was OK. I do agree with you that the WD diagnostic for that drive would have been my choice too. In fact left to me I would still download it, burn a a CD and run it in diagnostic mode even now just be sure. If it had been my machine I would have run both the WD Diag and Spinrite and then made a decision based on the results. You never know, Spinrite might have found a bad sector, recovered it and spared it off and the machine would have booted just fine. But we will never know.

Personally I am always happy to be corrected, I find I learn more by my errors than by what I get right. Being misunderstood I put down to my incompetence at explaining myself. Seems I should have said that as he had already checked with "a hard drive utility made for Gateway by western digital" he should really do it again with the WD utility but if he was prepared to take the risk and stick with the software he was familiar with then the next step was a zero fill.

 

[hondaman2003]

Guys, this is a very good discussion! Because of your suggestion goombawaho, I am still going to download the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics program and run the test. It's possible that I still have a problem and cannot see it right now. stduc, I'm going to also look at Spinrite and see about running a few tests there also.

Thank you!

 

[stduc]

Yes it's possible, but not probable. In fact quite unlikely I would say. So it depends on your paranoia level - LOL. Mine is rather high and I keep nothing I care about on laptops. My main home PC uses RAID5 (3 drives with the data smeared over them) so loss of a drive is not a problem. In addition I take a weekly image and daily file backups!

So if your worried, download it and make the bootable CD and give it a try. In read only diagnostic mode it should do no harm. If it reports bad sectors then you will have time to get a replacement drive and image the old one over.

Spinrite costs money and useful as it is, personally I wouldn't buy it unless I needed it more than once. I bought it years ago as part of my work and for older systems it is still brilliant at data recovery due to bad sectors or reviving a drive long enough to do a backup. For newer SATA drives and drives over 250GB it really can't cope and takes like 48 hours to scan 500GB. It can't handle RAID at all! But it really has saved the day for me on a few occasions. Like a laptop that wouldn't boot - Windows XP - I don't recall the error. Spinrite found the bad sector, recovered the data, spared it off and the machine booted fine. It was only a 60GB drive though but still took all night if memory serves. (No I didn't stay up to watch it!)

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[goombawaho]

Hey - let's run the WD utility anyway and see, though if the Gateway utility is worth anything I wouldn't expect any different results as already stated. My rule is to always use the ACTUAL hard drive manufacturer's tool first and then branch out to another program (that many people swear by) to get a second, third opinion.

I have to admit that I just "scanned" the original post and it didn't even dawn on me that GWSCAN was from Gateway. I was thinking of GroupWise Scan, which isn't even GWScan, it's GWCheck.

 

[hondaman2003]

I don't know if this was a 'one off' situation but it seems to be working fine now. I have been in windows since this situation and doing everything as normal.