What does this error mean???

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: Newtechie (newtechie_at_nospam.com)
Date: 09/23/04 

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 15:20:46 -0500

Hi all -

I recently bought a 250 gb hard-drive (Western Digital) and put it in my
computer. I installed XP Pro w/SP1 using a quick format since the drive was
new and bare. I did all the critical updates (except SP2), some of the
optional updates, and a few programs (antivirus, roxio, office, etc). I
thought every thing was fine until yesterday when I went to start my
computer, I got this error. "A disk read error occurred. Press
<ctrl><alt><del> to restart." So I did, only to get this looping error.

I called WD and they say this isn't a hard drive problem because the system
is recognizing the hard drive in the BIOS. They say it's possibly a O/S
problem and I should maybe reinstall it again. I did a few diagnostics
tests using the disk that came with drive and they both returned 0 errors.
I tried fixboot, fixmbr, and chkdsk /r to no avail. I did notice however
when I ran the fixmbr, it gave me a warning that C: was a non-standard or
invalid master boot record. I don't know what that means but I'm assuming
it's saying it can't find the boot sector.

Has anyone else run into this problem and solved it? Any help is
appreciated. Thanks.

Computer specs: Dell Dim 4100, 933mhz, 250 gb, 512 mb ram, XP Pro w/SP1

Newtechie

Relevant Pages

  • Re: New HDD Installation
    ... I ran both fixboot and fixmbr but the drive seems to be unactive. ... There are other ways to mark the partition active, either with a Windows ... I the selected disk management and highlighted ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • RE: Startup Problem
    ... Fixmbr may damage your partition tables if you proceed. ... "nass" wrote: ... I put the win XP disk into the computer and got as far as repair mode. ... I tried safe mode with dot prompt. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: win2000 has spyware, can I logon with console repair and delete files to
    ... 64 MB is really going to give slow performance with a lot of disk activity ... If you do a new install, ... install the service back before you do critical updates and do not connect ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.security)
  • Re: Risk of running FIXMBR
    ... Running fixmbr may cause problems such that you may ... haven't installed any partitions on this computer, ... or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console ... commands such as chkdsk, fixboot, and fixmbr for limited disk ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: W2KPro loads but no icons/taskbar show.
    ... fixboot and fixmbr and not on the w98 disk. ... the W2K disk when you get the the repair console. ... >>>Another thing to try is fixboot and fixmbr. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)