Have a 5 year old HP system, running windows XP. Its always on. This morning I came down and had black screen with error message "A disc read error occurred" Press CTR + ALT + DEL to restart. Upon doing that it takes me back to this same screen.
One thing I did last night, was put in my daughters dvd to look at some pictures and they would not load...she said the dvd always loads, but anyway I did open it with Media Player. I only bring this up because I probably have not used that drive for months or even a year.
After trying the alt ctr del, for a number of times, I have unplugged the computer, and tried bringing it up after awhile and same message. I also tried F10, system recovery....and just did the Windows XP stuff, not the system recovery, and after that was completed, brought me back to the same error message?
Wondering if anyone has any advice?

Just hard to understand, since I leave it on all the time, I used it last night, no issues, and then this morning this error, and I can not use my system.

Hi .

In my experience...this error means that my system's boot order has changed...it can no longer boot from the C: drive because it's now told to boot from something else (which is not bootable currently).

So...the first thing I would do is go into the BIOS/Setup...and check the boot options and order specified. Your hard drive should be Disk 0.

If that's a wrong guess, we'll move on .

Louis

Thanks for the reply.

No the hard drive is listed first.

In fact with more troubleshooting last night the drive is making noises, and then when I tried to F8, get into safe mode, it clicked away, then I received message from Phoenix - BIOS page, Primary Master Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T, status bad.

I can not get into safe mode?
Was hoping to run a fix disk or check disk. Not sure of commands, but can not get there anyway..can F1 to get to set up, and F10 to sustem recovery.

Is there any hope or advice?

SMART is a system designed to monitor a hard drive for indications that it is breaking down.

Receiving a SMART status message indicating that the drive has problems...would impress me with the need to get whatever data files I could...from that drive immediately.

Once that was done, I would then run a diagnostic utility (obtained from the website of the hard drive manufacturer) to get a more accurate assessment of the drive's status.

I would not be hopeful, but...the diagnostic would be the final arbiter.

Louis

Thanks.

Problem is, I can not get into my system at all.

Can not get by the error message, except with a f1 for set up, and f10 for recovery.

Perhaps thought I could get into safe mode, but can not do that either?

Can you get access to a second computer?

If so, you could then remove the hard drive from your system...temporarily connect it as a secondary drive to another system...and move needed data files, run diagnostics, etc.

If you have an XP CD...you can go into Setup, change the boot options so that the first boot option is the CD/DVD drive...and run a disk diagnostic which has been burned onto CD.

If you have a floppy drive, same as preceding...except the first boot option would be changed to the floppy drive.

Louis

I know I am sounding dumb here, but I do have an XP CD, I can change to boot from there by switching the drive in set up, but how to I run a disk diagnostic?

<<I know I am sounding dumb here, but I do have an XP CD, I can change to boot from there by switching the drive in set up, but how to I run a disk diagnostic?>>

You are not sounding dumb, it's me who's being dumb . Because I have had two desktops available for so long, I seem to think that everyone has a spare computer...if one is not working, the other will. My apologies .

Since you have an XP CD...a slight change of plan will do. Rather than run a disk diagnostic, we'll see if chkdsk will run to completion on the drive.

To run chkdsk /r, still need to change the boot option in Setup/BIOS so that the CD/DVD drive is the first boot option. Save the changes by hitting F10...the BIOS will close and XP will reboot. The XP CD should already be in your CD/DVD drive.

WIndows XP will start to load. Eventually you will be prompted to select between Setup Windows and Repair Windows.

Hit 'R' for Repair Windows.

The RC (Recovery Console) will look for existing Windows XP installs to repair. Usually you have just the one, listed by the RC after it has scanned your disk, so type '1', then hit ENTER. If the RC doesn't find any Windows Installs...you're in trouble.

Usually your admin password is blank, so just hit ENTER when prompted for a password.

Type chkdsk /r, exactly as shown...with a space between the k and /. This command will start the XP repair/maintenance tool. If the hard drive is very large and/or has problems...it may take some time for it to complete. When it does complete, it will go back to the line where you typed the chkdsk /r command.

If the CHKDSK finally succeeds without errors, then you merely type EXIT, hit ENTER. System will reboot.

If chkdsk encounters any problems, it will provide error messages. Please write such down if they occur.

That's enough for now . Post back.

Louis

Thanks, am at work now, will try everything this evening.
Thanks again for all your help.

No problem .

Louis

It would not start up from the change to cd drive in set up, but when I hit the f10 key for system recovery it started up off the windows XP disk. I did press R for repair windows...never asked for a password or anything...just took me here It came up " the recovery Console provides repair and recovery functionality"
Then 1. I:miniNT
2 I: \386

Then it asked what windows instllation would you like to log into..
I chose number 2...then I typed in chkdsk /r

It says the volume serial number is 505b-oe44
then a number of chkdsk is performing additional checking or recovery (3 lines of that)
Then says 15% completed...got that after about two minutes, and it has been there since. Been running for over an hour , I see the yellow light on to indicate the hard drive...tiny flickers here and there...but not like any kind of blinking...

Hopefully its running and repairing..need some luck.

Have I done the right thing?..

I certainly will post back if anything changes.

Do have another pc, my laptop..that still works thankfully!

I Have been running that chkdsk /r command now, as mentioned in my previous post. It is now 13 hours later, and it shows that it is 49% completed. I went to sleep last night at midnight and it was 47%. So now, its 8 hours later and it only went up 2%. Any ideas or advice?

I think that I would mentally write that drive off...and maybe fool with it at some time when I have plenty of time to experiment.

Something is very wrong with your system and I cannot tell what it is from here (well, all signs say that you have a bad hard drive). The Recovery Console did not reflect the correct data...nothing following happened as it should have.

I believe that you stated that you have had this system for 5 years...you got your money's worth out of that drive, time to invest in a newer hard drive.

I hope that you took the suggestion made previously...and moved data files which you considered worth keeping.

Louis

Thanks for all your help. Guess I do need to move on.